Donna, a documentary film by award-winning Welsh filmmaker, Jay Bedwani will premiere at Frameline46 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival at the Castro Theater on June 25 at the height of San Francisco’s Pride Week. The film paints an intimate and candid portrait of Bay Area trans activist, artist, performer and personality, Donna Personna, who was 60 when she made her drag debut at the iconic Aunt Charlie’s.
Donna Personna first hit the stage with the legendary Cockettes. But, ecstatic lip-synching in San Francisco’s downtown bars is a far cry from Personna’s Baptist upbringing in San Jose; now in her seventies, her siblings have never seen her perform or met her authentic self.
Donna follows Donna Personna’s journey when she is offered a chance to co-write a play about an overlooked episode in queer history, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, in which transgender women she knew stood up against police harassment. She creates a character to be played by a young transgender activist. Praised for her writing and emboldened by her new friends, she heads out of the city to be reunited with her sister, Gloria.
This revealing and uplifting film is beautifully observed by Bedwani who met Personna early in his filmmaking career when he was exploring both his personal and creative identity. The subject of his award-winning short (My Mother) is revisited in greater depth in Donna. Featuring mesmerizing moments recalled by the artist/activist in her emerging writer’s voice, Donna is a film that shows the strength that can be drawn from your community and proves it’s never too late to find your métier and truly blossom.
Watch the first trailer for Donna.
Donna will screen at the Castro Theatre on June 25, 2022. Bohemia Media will release Donna theatrically in the UK and Ireland on July 15, 2022.
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