An interview with Iris Devins (ACG '18, '16) on Trashy Booty

Iris Devins (ACG '18, '16), along with Broken Pier, a Philadelphia-based production company, is working on a new project, entitled Trashy Booty. An interview with Iris about Trashy Booty and how she got into film is featured in QueerPGH.

QueerPGH: Tell us about yourself. How did you get into film?

Iris Devins: I’m a writer/director. I came of age around DIY culture. I wasn’t good enough of a musician to make it in a band. I picked up a camera, because it was one thing that none of my friends were doing. It filled a gap in people’s projects. I didn’t really mean to get into filmmaking at first, but then I came to see the power of using images to share stories. I went back to school for film, and I learned more skills for screenwriting and directing actors. I fell in love with storytelling on screen. A lot of my work focuses on trans experiences. I made a short film for my MFA thesis about a trans woman in a relationship with a cisgender man called After the Date. When I wrote some of my earliest narrative projects, I couldn’t find many high budget films or shows that featured trans stories with trans performers. DIY trans and queer filmmakers held that space for a long time, screening at places like the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. Now that more mainstream films and shows include trans characters, I see my work as adding perspective to a growing movement of trans stories.

QueerPGH:What can you tell us about Trashy Booty?

Devins: Two dumpster diving trans best friends come across a hitchhiking robot who is a lesson in human kindness, and the three go on a journey in an unkind world. Some people might remember that a hitch hiking robot named hitchBOTgot destroyed in Philadelphia a few years back. The film focuses on trans friendship, but I also imagine this story as one day in hitchBOT’s journey.

Queer Pittsburgh, otherwise known as QueerPGH, is an online magazine made by and for queer folks in Pittsburgh. It is run by a crew of volunteers who want to promote the voices of LGBTQIA+ folks and all others who identify as queer, as well as create a comprehensive guide to their spaces in the area.

Visit here to read the full article.