Gendernauts - A Journey through shifting identities

Gendernauts is a documentary film that explores gender fluidity and the lives of transgender and intersex individuals in San Francisco, showcasing their experiences and identities through personal narratives and interviews. It emphasizes the complexities of gender beyond traditional binaries.

Monika Treut (born 6 April 1954 in Mönchengladbach, Germany) is an acclaimed lesbian filmmaker, writer, producer, and academic whose work has profoundly influenced German and international queer cinema for more than three decades. After studying German and Political Science at the University of Marburg and earning a doctorate in philology in 1984, she co-founded Hyena Films in Hamburg with Elfi Mikesch and worked as an assistant director for Werner Schroeter. During the 1980s, her time in the United States helped shape her progressive and unconventional explorations of lesbian and gay sexuality, contributing significantly to the emergence of New Queer Cinema. Treut’s filmography includes over 20 award-winning feature films and documentaries, such as Seduction: The Cruel Woman (1985), Virgin Machine (1988), My Father Is Coming (1991), Gendernauts (1999), and Of Girls and Horses (2014). Her work has received international recognition through numerous awards and retrospectives held across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. In 2017, she was honoured with the Berlinale’s Special Teddy Award. Alongside filmmaking, Treut has taught at universities in California and New York, published extensively in academic and cultural journals, and since 2018 has served as Chair of Media at the University of Hildesheim.