EXCLUSIVE: Paradigm has signed actor, filmmaker and artist Lío Mehiel for representation in all areas on the heels of their breakout performance in Mutt, which led them to become the first trans actor to nab Sundance’s U.S.
Dramatic Special Jury Award at this year’s festival. Mehiel’s first-ever feature, from writer-director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz, has them starring as Feña, a young, NYC-based trans man navigating the extremes of human emotion with the most important people in his life.
Deadline’s Damon Wise, in his review of the film out of Sundance, called Mehiel’s performance “soul-baring” and “pitch-perfect,” referring to the actor as “a fearless talent that doesn’t fit too easily into boxes.” After making its international debut in the Generation 14+ section of the Berlin Film Festival, Mutt will go on to close the New Directors/New Films Festival from The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center, which launches in New York City this week.
Mehiel has previously worked across film, television, multimedia installation, theater and events, using their work to examine themes of the inherent contradiction of the trans experience — one deeply rooted in the body while also transcending beyond the body.
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