Strange Truth 2025: Girl Island: The Sandy Stone Story
Work in Progress Screening and Discussion
Directed and Produced by Marjorie Vecchio
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
4:30pm
VCAM Screening Room
A clip show and conversation with Sandy Stone, Director and Producer Marjorie Vecchio, animation director/graphic novel artist Bishakh ‘Rani’ Som, and advisor and consultant Heather Kelley, moderated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics Ryan Warwick, Haverford College.
GIRL ISLAND: THE SANDY STONE STORY is a feature documentary in mid-production about Allucquére Rosanne 'Sandy' Stone, a world visionary who pioneered Trans Studies and Digital Media Art and Theory. Intersecting with America's most iconic moments in rock music, computer science, feminism, trans history, philosophy, and art, Sandy’s life personifies the transition of Modernity into the Digital Era. The title references the imaginary world Sandy made up as a child, lovingly called “Girl Island”. Not your usual talking heads documentary, GIRL ISLAND mixes fantastical animation with recent cinéma vérité, archives, and numerous new interviews. To present a clear picture of her accomplishments, spirit, and teachings, the film’s audience will witness Sandy’s life through two lenses: factual and fantastical. The actual island in GIRL ISLAND is an animated fictional narrative through which we learn about Sandy’s real life. The animation toggles back and forth with the documentary footage, eventually converging the two storylines. Structured around her trailblazing 26-pg. call-to-action text “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto,” Sandy’s life story shows how hacking, art, and elusiveness are successful techniques for self- preservation, justice, and progress. Sandy has made many real-life “Girl Island” communities throughout her life, and this film will bring them all together!
This panel discussion and work-in-progress film screening will address the unique concerns of producing this unique film. Students will discover how the production team has dealt with the unique demands of bringing this story to life, as well as what Sandy’s legacy might have to say for the future of art, philosophy, and politics.
Strange 2025 is organized by Visual Studies and VCAM Director John Muse and Haverford College faculty Aurelia Gómez Unamuno, Lina Martínez Hernández, and Ryan Warwick.
The series is made possible by the John B. Hurford ’60 Center for the Arts and Humanities; VCAM’s Media & Makers Series; the Haverford College Departments of Spanish and Classics; the Visual Studies Program at Haverford College; the Haverford College Office of the Provost’s Distinguished Visitors Program and Early Career Scholars (ECS) Fund; and Bryn Mawr Film Institute.
