In an airborne pandemic when separation, isolation, and self-sufficiency became the punishing norm, many trans people faced the COVID-19 era differently. Connection | Isolation presents eight portraits of trans and post-gender people who cultivate community in this pandemic. The film also highlights how the pandemic gave some trans people more space to explore and understand their identities, community, and bodies.
Between portraits, we depict elegiac (re)enactments performed by trans people revisiting their core COVID-era memories: washing masks, wiping down groceries with disinfectant, and traveling alone to work at the hospital in an empty city. Archival moments flow into these scenes - news reports, memes that made us laugh, and web seminars on community care. Trans and queer people - a community most impacted by pandemics like HIV/AIDS- have built a culture undergirded by mutual aid. This became a model for resilience and care in the pandemic for those who listened. This film follows in that legacy.