Mark Duplass shut down criticism of trans filmmakers after announcing his involvement in a trans film initiative. Duplass is an actor, producer, writer, director, and musician best known for his work in the Creep films and show, FX’s The League, and HBO’s Togetherness.
OUT.com reported that this past week, Duplass announced that his production company, Duplass Brothers Productions, is partnering with the Transgender film center to start up the Footage Feature Fund. This new project aims to make filmmaking more accessible to trans filmmakers, giving them access to an estimated $25,000 budget. Additionally, he and fellow director Patrick Brice will make themselves available consultants to these trans filmmakers’ projects.
After the announcement, Duplass was met with outraged conservatives who seemingly get riled up at a single mention of trans people. In response to these bigoted comments, Duplass fired back on X/Twitter, “For those of you who have responded negatively to this initiative, thank you for confirming the need to support the voices of those who merely wish to exist without discrimination.”
This statement was met with vast encouragement from X/Twitter users. One person wrote, that his response “(means) so much as a trans filmmaker.” Others echoed how important this statement is in today’s political climate, when trans people are constantly being attacked by conservative politicians and new laws.
The Duplass brothers have been vehement supporters of the trans community since their launching of an Academy Award campaign for the film Tangerine. According to OUT.com, the film revolves around a transgender prostitute in in Los Angeles played by openly transgender actress, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez. Although their campaign was ultimately unsuccessful, the Duplass brothers continue to support the creation of LGBTQ+ stories. They also produced the recent HBO series, Somebody Somewhere, which awarded openly gay actor, Jeff Hiller his first Emmy.
As conservatives are actively trying to silence transgender people, it is incredibly uplifting to see a celebrity not only stand with trans people vocally, but in action as well. We all know that actions speak louder than words, and we can only hope that more celebrities, and people with influence, are inspired by Duplass to take action against trans suppression.
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