a photo of a person wearing a dress and standing at a road intersection in an american town

Bohemia Media launch trailer and poster for documentary Donna

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Jay Bedwani and funded by Ffilm Cymru, Donna is is an intimate and candid portrait of the inspiring trans activist, artist and performer Donna Personna.

It follows her journey to live authentically as herself and to reconnect with her family.

Donna will receive it's world premiere at Frameline46 San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival on 25th June.

Donna Personna first hit the stage with the legendary Cockettes. Ecstatic lip-synching in San Francisco’s downtown bars is a far cry though from Donna’s Baptist upbringing in San Jose; now in her seventies, her estranged siblings have never seen her perform or met her authentic self.

The documentary begins when Donna is offered a chance to co-write a play about an overlooked episode in queer history, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, in which transgender women Donna knew stood up against police harassment. She writes a character to be played by a young transgender activist. Praised for her writing and emboldened by her new friends, she heads out of the city to be reunited with her sister, Gloria.

This revealing and uplifting film is beautifully observed by Bedwani and features mesmerising moments recalled by Donna in her emerging writer’s voice. Donna is a film that shows the strength that can be drawn from your community and proves: it’s never too late to find your métier and truly blossom.

Donna is produced by Truth Department and Films de Force Majeure (Marseille) and Executive Produced by MisFits Entertainment, with support in the UK from Ffilm Cymru Wales, BFI NETWORK, Creative Wales and in France from CNC, Lyon Capitale TV and Procirep-Angoa. 

poster for donna

Donna is released in UK and Irish cinemas and on Bohemia Euphoria 15th July 2022.