Director of Photography Ava Benjamin Shorr is already well-versed in framing icons. In 2020, Shorr’s camera focused on dozens of trailblazing interviewees for Sam Feder’s “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen” and the star-studded cast of “Equal,” HBO Max’s LGBTQ+ historical miniseries. She also worked on Lisa Donato’s narrative feature “Gossamer Folds,” a trans American fable.
In addition to narrative and documentary credits, Shorr’s resume includes stylish genre shorts, commercials for big brand names like Nike and Jack Daniels, and music videos from artists as varied as Of Montreal and Snoop Dogg.
Long before winning a mentorship with Rachel Morrison, whose work on “Mudbound” earned her the first Oscar nomination for a woman cinematographer in the Academy’s history, Shorr was dreaming of making a mark in the movies. As she says on her website, and elaborates in The Queer Review, her earliest love for filmmaking was stoked by skateboarding videos and art house cinema, and when she saw “A Clockwork Orange” in high school, it “really did something to [her] that [she] couldn’t ignore.”
Todd Haynes’ “Carol” arrived a little later in Shorr’s experience as a cinephile, but its lush visuals and careful color also had an enormous impact: attention to color and sensuality appears in much of Shorr’s work, with an obvious example being the rich palette and tone of “Equal.” The four part miniseries highlights real life LGBTQ+ icons, both notorious (such as Jamie Clayton as self-made trans debutante Christine Jorgensen), and buried by time (including Theo Germaine portraying 1920s “gender offender” Jack Starr).
“Equal”
Collaborating with showrunner Stephen Kijak, Shorr took a cue from Haynes in deciding “to not be as wild” with the look of the series, instead lighting their re-enactors in deep, flattering tones, and framing in ways that evoked the voyeuristic nature of revealing and concealing one’s queer identity. One of Shorr’s many talents here is in complementing her performers ability — not only lensing their performances, but working with light, frame, and camera to help communicate their most authentic energy. In front of her lens, everyone from Lorraine Hansberry (Samira Wiley) to Sylvia Rivera (Hailie Sahar) come alive.
Shorr has an enormous capacity for truly making her stars shine, and not only in “Equal.” In the web series “Razor Tongue,” Shorr captures the spirit of quick-witted and self-assured Belle (Rain Valdez) as she navigates life and love as a trans woman, with Valdez’s performance earning an Emmy nomination in the process.
Breaking from fiction, Shorr’s work on the groundbreaking documentary “Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen” assisted interviewees like Laverne Cox, Angelica Ross, Lilly Wachowski, and the legendary Sandra Caldwell in unpacking Hollywood’s history of antagonism, violence, and inaccuracy towards trans folks.
“Disclosure”
For “Disclosure,” Shorr also chose to put her subjects’ importance above that of flashy cinematography, instead styling her talking heads as comfortably and naturally as possible. In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Shorr gives some insight to her and director Sam Feder’s choices.
“With my cinematography I wanted to create a comfortable, calm space where our subjects could speak at length about not just the history of trans lives on screen, but also how these images have affected them. Since this history is a painful and sometimes violent one, I didn’t want my lighting or camera work to get in the way. Initially, Sam [Feder] and I floated some ideas of dollies or camera movement, but it wasn’t necessary. We wanted the stories to speak for themselves, without distractions.”
But Shorr’s work doesn’t only create icons out of others. Shorr, who “happens to be a transgender woman,” consistently turns her lens to those in her community, and, occasionally, that includes herself.
Perhaps the most direct insight into Shorr’s work, the short documentary “Other Voices: Ava & Bianca” follows her friendship with fellow DP and trans woman Bianca Cline. In it, Shorr and Cline muse about the uniqueness of their relationship, which has its foundations in the two sharing the hyper-specific life experiences of being trans DPs who come from Mormon families, and talk director Rachel Fleit through their cinematographic philosophies. Most compellingly, Shorr and Cline are co-DPs on the short, literally showing each other how they see themselves.
Shorr’s next listed project, Matthew C. Anderson’s “Baja Come Down,” is currently in post-production, and there will doubtless be more excellence, trans and otherwise, in front of Shorr’s lens in the coming years.
“Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen” is available on Netflix, and “Equal” is available on HBO Max.
