User:NeonAfterlife/Sam Feder

= Sam Feder = Sam Feder is an American Filmmaker. He is a trans man whose work explores visibility regarding race, class, and gender. He is concerned with bringing visibility to trans peoples experiences. Feder is best known for the 2020 Documentary Disclosure. His films have been nominated for and received multiple awards, including the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, the GLADD outstanding Documentary Award, and the Peabody awards.

Early Life and Education
At fifteen years old, Feder bought a Pentax K1000 camera, which he used to make photo essays on neglected children and racism in Brooklyn. In high school, he became an HIV activist. During his adolescence, Feder struggled with his identity, specifically with the images he saw of trans people in media. In an interview with Suyin Haynes of Time Magazine, he said "It wasn't really until I met trans people in real life did I understand; these images informed what I thought trans people were,"

Career and Films
Feder's career has had a focus on the trans community and trans justice. He stated in an interview with Megan McFarland of Salon, "I think I began to make films in my early twenties because I felt so alienated,". Feder has said in interviews that the images he saw in films and shows influenced his idea of trans people. He has spent his career since then making films about, and with, trans people. Specifically, when working on Disclosure, Feder prioritized hiring trans people. Whenever that was not possible, the cisgendered person would be asked to mentor a fellow trans crewmember.

Feder's short films include the 2009 film No More Lies, the 2010 film Billy: A portrait of a Dancer, the 2010 film This All Happened Already, and the 2019 film When The Dust Settles.

...exploring tensions in lesbian communities around trans men coming out,...profiling the groundbreaking trans activist,...exploring Hollywood's depiction of transgender people, and what impact those depictions have had on both the transgender community itself and American culture as a whole.

The Advocate also named Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger one of the best documentaries in 2014

The film later won the outstanding Documentary award at the 32nd GLADD Media awards in 2021, which he and executive producer Laverne Cox accepted. Disclosure also received a nomination for the Peabody awards.

Feder's films have been supported by many organizations, including the Jerome foundation, Perspective Fund, Threshold, IFP Film Week, MacDowell Colony, and the Yaddo artist residency.