Dear Friends,
I’ve been called an Electoral College junkie, and honestly, it fits. It’s been a passion of mine to help us all understand the power of our vote, or lack thereof, when it comes to how presidents are elected. While that work continues, I’m now turning the camera toward a different kind of power, because the hate flooding our country right now is exhausting and overwhelming.
I mean. Damn.
Let’s take it back like it’s ‘88 and take a Break...for Love!
I’m excited to share that I’m in the late stages of production on A Raw Love Story, a hybrid documentary that explores the life of Raw (she/they), a non-binary, gender-fluid artist, as they navigate gender-affirming surgery while raising a teenage son, Diago, with their life partner, Issa. And though it’s a deeply personal story for Raw, it also tells a story that too few see on screen: a queer family thriving. Not one that’s tragic or tokenized. One that’s thriving. Joyfully. Poetically. Radiantly.
Trans and non-binary lives are under attack. Against a backdrop of alarming statistics: 81% of transgender adults in the U.S. have thought about suicide, 42% have attempted it, and 56% have engaged in non-suicidal self-injury. This story dares to imagine another way.
Many people still don’t understand what “non-binary” means. We’ve been taught to see gender as a binary, i.e., male or female, with nothing in between. However, in this paradigm, gender exists on a spectrum. And Raw describes themselves as living right in the middle of that spectrum. This film gives language, embodiment, and humanity to something many have never had a chance to understand. And when people understand, they can begin to accept. And when they accept, they can love.
Before I ever picked up a camera, I was a poet and spoken word artist. One of my favorite poets is Audre Lorde. And I carry her words with me in this work:
"Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever. In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction."
That quote lives at the soul of this project.
One of the reasons I wanted to make this film about Raw is that I saw something familiar in them. They live their life the same way I strive to live mine: with magic realism as a North Star, as a lens, a way of expanding reality toward poetry, myth, and meaning.
But let’s be clear. Life hasn’t been easy for Raw. Far from it. They’ve faced abandonment, transphobia, loss, and violence. The kind of darkness that could easily harden a person. I recognized a shared philosophy between Raw and me…
When my younger brother died at fourteen, I was twenty. He had been playing with a gun he thought was empty. It wasn’t. In an instant, everything split open. That unfathomable loss became the catalyst for my own creative awakening. Until then, I had no idea I had a creative bone in my body. Then I picked up a pen, and soon after, a bass guitar. Through poetry and music, I found a way to survive and, eventually, a way to make meaning out of what felt impossible to carry.
Raw, too, has mastered the alchemy of turning pain into beauty. How to take your most painful, broken moments and transform them into the most generous, radiant thing you have to offer the world. As Raw lives life, they create legend. They craft their life like a work of art. Watching them move through the world is like watching someone weave spirit into the everyday. And I knew I had to capture it.
Fate, or perhaps divine timing, brought Raw into my life through a collaborator on my last film, One Person, One Vote?. My composer, the incomparable Mark Batson, a 5x Grammy Award–winning music producer—whom I met back in the 90s in the NYC music scene, and with whom I would eventually work and play music all around the world, touring with the artist Kelis—introduced me to Raw. It’s wild how this rigorous, political documentary about the Electoral College led me right back to my musical roots. Sometimes, the work leads you exactly where your spirit needs to go.
And Raw? They are a force of nature. A published book author, a music artist, a devoted parent, and now a grad student at Howard University and founder of a nonprofit called The Happy Pappy Foundation that provides free backpacks, school supplies, and fresh haircuts to LGBTQIA+ youth to help them start the school year feeling proud and seen. Raw lives their values out loud, turning care into action and love into legacy. Documenting their journey has been a gift.
As I’ve traveled across the country with One Person, One Vote?, I’ve shared that the film was, in its own way, a love letter to this country, an invitation to engage in civic self-reflection, instead of cynicism. To dialogue instead of demonize. To exchange hate for the greater ideals this country claims to believe in—chief among them, the right to have dominion over our own thoughts, beliefs, bodies, and faith. We are not North Korea, where you must choose from 17 state-approved haircuts (at least not yet). America, at its best, is a place where difference isn’t a threat but a promise: the promise of freedom. That promise needs protection. That promise needs us to be active and engaged.
My director’s statement articulating why I have chosen to make A Raw Love Story is simple:
Love is love is love is love.
We should be able to love who we love.
When we’re ready to love.
Period.
Love can be elusive. And terrifying. And risky.
But when two souls find it, it deserves to be celebrated.
It should be seen.
Its beauty beheld.
This film is an act of love.
A love letter to love.
In all its purest forms.
A love for the ages…
I’m excited to bring the team back together with animation by Pierre Bennu and musical score by Mark Batson. If this story resonates with you—even just a little—I’d love your support. As funding for independent films continues to shrink exponentially, especially for documentaries that center these kinds of voices, the philanthropic sector has become our primary path to survival. Check us out on the A Raw Love Story website.
Thank you for walking with me on this Substack journey!
More soon.
From my heart to yours,
Maximina
