Chet Pancake

Chet Pancake’s (ACG ’16; LTA ’17; WOO ’19,’22,’23) documentary Queer Genius has been selected for public television broadcast on WNET Channel 13 New York City, the largest public television market in the U.S. Queer Genius is one of the very few feature documentaries available internationally regarding queer female, nonbinary, lesbian artists with portraits of Barbara Hammer, Black Quantum Futurism, Jibz Cameron, and Eileen Myles.

This grant will support with finishing funds, particularly for remixing the film’s sound and re-exporting video files, as well as working with a public relations firm to support the broadcast of the film.

Chet Pancake’s (ACG ’16; LTA ’17; WOO ‘17, ‘19, ‘22) documentary feature, Queer Genius – which highlights queer female and non-binary artists – has been picked up by Frameline and is moving toward an online streaming release in March. With the film’s international festival schedule interrupted by the global pandemic, expected sales and distribution for Queer Genius were significantly impacted. This grant will support with finishing funds, particularly for PR, social media marketing, and sound mixing.

Chet Catherine Pancake (WOO '19, '17, LTA '17, ACG '16) will be premiering their film Queer Genius at two film festivals this summer, one of which will be at the Lightbox Film Center here in Philadelphia. The WOO Grant will be used to cover travel and logistical expenses related to these screenings. 

Chet Catherine Pancake is an award-winning visual and sound artist whose film, installation, and fine art works address social critique and change as well as formal ingenuity and experimentation.  Chet's work has been exhibited in major museums (Museum of Modern Art - MoMA) and critiqued in international art publications like Artforum. Nonetheless, Chet views their practice as deeply rooted in the local & personal, exploring their immediate community in Pennsylvania, their identity as a queer/trans person/parent, and on-going explorations of ecological/environmental/family trauma and healing. Chet also engages in a rigorous practice of curating and supporting fellow artists through a fine arts gallery in their home. Chet is also an educator teaching at Temple University with research interests in the relationship of queerness and sound, as well as pedagogical approaches to overcoming inequity in high school technical training for students in freshman film and media arts classes.

Chet Catherine Pancake (ACG '16) will prepare a rough cut of her feature film, Queer Genius, for a residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

Chet Catherine Pancake will commission three queer female musicians to compose music for their feature film Queer Genius that features visionary queer artists. Music composing for film has an extremely low presence of women, particularly queer, African American and trans women. The composed music will be presented in a live performance, followed by an open discussion with the artists. Chet will hold a free workshop for queer/POC/women around creative sound design and composition for film. The live performance and workshop will be held at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia.