Dreams of Sunlight Through Trees by Theo Jean Cuthand 2024

Hi! I decided to make Dreams of Sunlight Through Trees public as it’s been over the two year window for getting into festivals. It never really did well in festivals, I think because of how much anti trans advocacy was being done over the last two years, and the cowardice of most people in the arts.

I actually talked about this today in therapy. Over the last two years of the Trump administration, my income disappeared and there were months even in the last year when I didn’t make any money at all. I also lost weight for a while when I wasn’t getting grants and it only improved when I started doing adjunct teaching this past winter. I did get little dribs and drabs of gigs and money. But at one point in my life I was a valuable artist, and then the world shifted right and I had no value anymore. And I knew it and I saw it and I suffered hunger because of it. So pardon me if I am not overjoyed that the American voters finally shifted slightly left. And also Canada had followed suit. They did not protect trans and queer artists, we had just as rough a time up here. I’m so tired of it honestly, depending on others for my survival.

But also what was upsetting was how many rejections I got from American festivals for the above video. Rejection after rejection. And it could have done some good, it could have made people recognize how freedoms were being stripped from transgender people through the complicity of the media. It could have underlined that transition is a positive, joyful, and necessary experience for some trans people. It could have made a difference and it wasn’t allowed to. Which is why I am finally releasing it today. It’s not going to make any more money than it already did.

People in the arts are cowards. People needed to take risks and stand up for marginalized people and they didn’t. They stood by passively and were like oh no we can’t make a fuss or we’ll lose our funding. Way to go. You enabled the last two years of terrorizing transgender people by not standing by us and our art.

Anyway. Not much about that can be done now. I hope you enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed transitioning and making it.