At SXSW, Sophia Bush, Jeremy O. Harris, Jaboukie Young-White & Zoë Chao Champion LGBTQ Resistance & “The Queering Of Filmmaking”

deadline.com:

Although LGBTQ representation was few and far in between among the headliners at this year’s SXSW, several indie darlings broke the industry’s cis-heteronormative mold to stand out.

From Special Jury Award winner Fucktoys, multi-hyphenate Annapurna Sriram’s bold celluloid fever dream of a feature debut, to The True Beauty of Being Bitten by a Tick, co-writer/director Pete Ohs’ captivating model for cooperative filmmaking, there’s a glimmer of hope that the future of the industry lies in the hands of a new generation of marginalized folk with the right amount of passion, vision and ingenuity.

While catching up with Sophia Bush about her upcoming One Tree Hill revival in the works at Netflix, the actress emphasized the importance of LGBTQ representation in media as the Trump administration continues to dismantle DEI. “I think 2025 sucks for everyone, to be clear, but what I think is worrisome, particularly for us, is the desire to take people’s civil rights away,” Bush told Deadline at the iHeartPodcast Awards at Austin City Limits during SXSW. “We are meant to be the land of the free, a nation of free, a nation that respects its constitution and its due process and its laws, and we are in a very lawless time and it’s very unfortunate to watch that kind of disrespect be weaponized against people who are so vulnerable to discrimination. … It’s incredibly tired that we are coming after people for being their happiest, healthiest, most loving and most loved selves.” Sriram, whose directorial debut Fucktoys is her tribute to queer filmmakers like John Waters and Gregg Araki, “felt like a lot of the acting opportunities I had were very limiting and very racist” before writing her own dream role about a fun-loving dominatrix