Teresa Pittman-Chavez (pictured right) founded Rasquaché Films with Kelly Daniela Norris in 2008. She wrote and co-directed the short film Sinnerman (2009), and produced Ms. Norris' debut feature Sombras de Azul (2013) on location in Cuba. Pittman-Chavez co-wrote (with Ghanaian filmmaker Isaac Adakudugu) and co-directed (with Ms. Norris) the Ghana-set drama Nakom (2016), which premiered at Berlinale. Nakom had its North American premiere at New Directors / New Films, won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Durban International Film Festival - its African premiere - and was nominated for the John Cassavetes Award at the 2017 Film Independent Spirit Awards. She grew up mixed race and trans in San Francisco and received her B.A. in Film and Political Science from Columbia University. Presently, she lives in Stockton CA with her husband and wonderful six-year-old and is probably out in the garden.

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ABOUT BIOLOGICAL EXUBERANCE

Inspired by the foundational text of queer ecology, Biological Exuberance celebrates the diversity of gender and sexuality in nature and exposes its history of suppression by the scientific community. The film follows a sect of pioneering biologists, alongside current ecologists, to track the expansive evidence of same-sex sexuality and transgender behavior as it exists in the natural world, debunking the hegemonic and oppressive notion of queer sexuality as being a human-specific phenomenon existing outside of, as opposed to within, the natural biological world.

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FILM

Biological Exuberance

PROGRAM AFFILIATION

William Greaves Research & Development Fund

COHORT YEAR

2023-2024