Events

Film Description - Queer women are not statistically “safe,” but there are medical spaces that have been crafted so that they can be treated with the same dignity as any other patient. Patient No More is a documentary about the barriers LGBTQ+ women navigate across health care systems and how the never-ending hunt for affirming care affects their lives. Focused on centering the experiences of queer and female-identified people, the film features the voices of 17 LGBTQ+ women as both expert and patient.

Director’s Bio: 

Diana Fraser is a freelance producer whose work empowers social dialogue, creative collaboration, and marginalized communities. She believes listening to others tell their stories changes the game. Diana has managed and designed advertising spots, documentaries, digital storytelling projects, and broadcast programs. As a production manager at Twin Cities PBS her programs received over 18 Emmy nominations and 9 wins.

Her freelance portfolio features a Princess Grace Honorarium Award film, two feature films, and several festival-recognized short films. She is a 2018 Minnesota State Arts Board grant recipient and a 2021 Online News Association Women’s Accelerator for Digital Journalism cohort member.  Patient No More is her directorial debut.

Director’s Statement: 

Queer women are not statistically “safe,” but there are medical spaces that have been crafted so that they can be treated with the same dignity as any other patient. “Patient No More” follows the stories of LGBTQ+ women navigating barriers across health care systems and how the never-ending hunt for affirming care affects their lives.

Historically, women have been used for experiments, committed to insane asylums, deprived of medical agency, misdiagnosed, and mistreated in Western medicine. As such, there remain long-term side effects to this long-festering malignancy; side effects that appear routinely in the care of queer women, whether lesbian, bisexual, trans, intersex, or other identifications.

Our team hopes this film will impact the way providers engage with their patients, and how the healthcare system trains new medical professionals. We hope our straight allies will stand beside us as we advocate for safety, dignity, and respect. But most of all, we hope our queer siblings feel empowered to hold their physicians to a higher standard. Queer women+ exist, and we deserve to be treated with dignity in all spaces, but particularly when we are at our most vulnerable.

In many ways this film is a love letter to the doctor who made me feel safe when I came out in rural America. My deepest wish is that all queer+ folx know the peace of mind she granted me in that appointment. Back then our country was a different climate entirely: marriage equality had not yet passed, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act did not exist, and the Supreme Court had not weighed in on transgender rights. Now tht it is 2019 I am certain I could not have made this film without that affirming physician, or the others fighting to ensure their patients feel safe and respected no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. May the next generation of doctors and medical professionals be led by their example.

Special thanks to our funders for standing by the Project’s primary mission in our storytelling venture: to ensure representation in front of and behind the camera. We did so by making three conscious choices: 1) to tell the story solely through queer+ and female-identified experts and testimonials; 2) by hiring a crew composed of at least 50% women, LGBTQ+ folx, and people of color; and 3) by collaborating with local crew and businesses to keep work in community, for community, by community.

The Patient No More project ensured representation in front of and behind the camera by making three conscious choices: 

1. The story is told by queer+ and female-identified experts and testimonials.
2. The crew is comprised of at least 50% women, LGBTQ+ folx, and people of color.
3. The work is done for community, by community, in community.

from Convocations Events