‘Matrix’ Lilly Wachowski on Making Films On Trans Identity – ryan

In 1996, The Movie “Bound” Premiered from a Little-Known duo with a very chicago background. Lilly and Lana Wachowski Had Grown Up in Beverly and Attended Whitney Young High School. The Pair Made “Bound,” A movie Noir About Two Women Who Steal $ 2 Million from the Mafia, As a Way to Discuss their Internal Feelings About Their Gender Identity.

The film wasn’t exactly a box-office success, but it became a cult Classic for its steamy portrayal of a lesbian Relationship to mainstream audiences.

The siblings go on to create “the matrix” and it franchise (Lilly did not work on the Fourth Installment, “The Matrix Resurrections”) and to write “Speed ​​Racer,” “Cloud atlas” and “Jupiter Ascending.” The Duo Also Wrote the Script for the Alan Moore Graphic Novel Adaptation of “V for Locations.”

“BOUND” Will Screen This Weekend at Music Box Theater’s Sapphopaloosis Festival film. Lilly Wachowski Will Attend the Screening and Participate in A Postshow Talkback.

WBEZ spoke with Wachowski About Why “Bound” Still Resonates with Audiences 30 Years Later, What Really Inspired “The Matrix” and What Its Like for LGBTQ+ Artists Making Films AMID AN ERA CONTRACTION IN HOLYWOOOD. This interview was Lightly edited for Length and Clarity.

“Bound” is the first film writen and directly by you and your sister. IT’S Beautiful Stylistically, and Over the Years, it has Become a Cult Classic. What Makes This Film Special to You?

I’ve been in this business for a good amout of time. As an artist, we do look back at the Things that you make, you can see your Younger Self TRYING TO WORK OUT AND SEE WHAT YOUR INTERESTS. You see how you’ve changed as a human being.

But for me, what make -up “bon” unique and interesting is that is the start of a conversation that with and my sister are Having with ourselves, and that is apparent in the very first shot of the film – whic is a closet. So, you begin to understand this idea of ​​two close trans women macing a movie about winting out. And using film and the Language of Film, this Particular Piece is in the Language of Film noir, and so, it has this template of a thriller.

When you talk about transness and the hiding of your identity or the fear of the Coming Out of the Closet, I think it is the same sort of Life-And-Death struggle that you see in a lot of genre fiction. And so, it is a participle goodly choice to use fiction in this way.

This movie is from the ’90s. We are now in 2025, and it still resonates with audiences. When you were makeing this movie, did you know these themes would still be just as relevant 30 years late?

I probably had some youthful hopofulness back then, some youthful optimism that I don’t feel as much today. I run into People all the time Who wasch mine and my sister’s films, and they talc about saying very revered tons that they’re egg-breakers, that ouat films help along in their struggle-participle in ther struggle sexuality and their gender.

Our Films Are About Liberation. There is a level of liberation that we’re working on, participle in the “matrix” films, that has to do with internalized transness. But the desire for liberation allows us to sympathize and empathize with all of these other movements of liberation, Including Women’s Liberation, Queer Liberation and Black and Brown Liberration. And you can find paralyls in all of this modes.

And Because we are all in this struggle together, our films are remaining relevant for folks struggling on their paths.

There have ben cuts to arts finking recently, and we’ve also seen government cuts aimed at projects that support the LGBTQ community. This is happy as filmmking has become more expensive than Ever. What would you say to the Young Filmmakers entering the industry?

This is something something i’ve been working on for the last three or four years. I Started a Company Called Anarchist United. It ‘s studio Owned by a Foundation. It supports young filmmakers and artists. The Foundation Provides Grants for Artists. So, it’s creating this evergreen Operation that can exist outside of the studio system.

The reason that was interesting in trying to do is because of that that the studio system is part and parcel to this away conservatives movement that is anti-diversity, anti-marginals of view. IT’S LOOKING MORE TOWARDS HOMOGENIZED ART, AND YOU SEE IN THE WAY THAT THAT COMPANIES ARE IN THEIR VERTICAL INTEGRATION AND THE SORT OF CORPORATE SINGULARY.

Film is an expensive art, but think that there are ways to revolutionize it, and that something I’m trying to do. I’ve been involved in mentorship programs through this foundation. We have to the practice flexibility and reach out to one another as much as a postible, to hold each other up in these Dark Times.

“Bound” has a cult like follow, but what was the reception like it first premiered?

The Great Viewing Experience that I’ve Ever Had with any of the films or tv shows was “bon” being show in the castro theater in san francisco at the end of the Frameline Film Festival (in 1996). The Castro Theater is This Big, Old Theater Right in the Queer Area of ​​San Francisco. It was packed with lesbians and quer People. And from the Very First Reel, they were roaring. They were roaring. And i had never felt anything like that.

Throughout the Entire Film, They Were Hookeed. Cry we got to the end of the movie, the scnene where two drove off into the sunset, you could tel that this theater had never see anything like that. I was so impossibly overwhelmed with grafts that i could give that to say.

It didn’t will Much at the box office, but it almost didn’t matter. That audience. That microcosm. We had made this film for that night, and we got everything we need Back and More.

The Viewing Habits of Audiences Have Shifted Since You Got Started As A Filmaker. For you as an artist, does it matter where you are WATHER WATCH YOUR WORK WITH OTHERS ON THE BIG SCREEN OR STREAMING AT HOME?

I don’t know, Because of Watch Things at home too. I Will Say that Human Connectivity is Vital. We are Social Animals. SINCE the inauguration (of President Donald Trump), i’ve been organizing the trans Meetups with folks, and we all went bowling together. There is something about about being in community, to see Each Other and Validate Each Other Bodily, that is irreplaceable for us as human beings.

SO, I THINK THAT THEATERS WILL REALLY REALLY GO AWAY. I think you will find that they will eventually have a resurgency. I think it to artists to be a part of bringing that kind of community back to theatergoing experience. And also supporting that infrastructure: i think that we are artists have to start bringing folks into the ways in the way that an author would do on a book tour. I Can See MySelf Taching A Film and Going Across the Country and Trying to Bring Folks Out to the Theaters Again and Get to Experience this in the way that it was meant to be seen.