Focus Features Debuts Docuseries “We’ve Been Around”

Focus Features is partnering with Time Inc. and The Advocate to debut the new digital short film documentary series We’ve Been Around today, Tuesday, March 1^st @2:00 PM ET. The series, which shares previously untold histories of transgender pioneers, will premiere exclusively across three Time Inc. websites – People.com, EW.com, and Essence.com – as well as on Advocate.com.

We’ve Been Around is from Emmy Award-nominated director Rhys Ernst (co-producer of Transparent). Ernst teamed up with producer Christine Beebe and a number of creative collaborators from the transgender community to research, produce, and create these important films. From the narrators to the composer to the animator, the series was made with a breadth of talent from the trans community. The team includesTransparent actress Alexandra Billings; writer and filmmaker Susan Stryker; and trans historian Monica Roberts.

The educational series continues Focus Features’ support of diversity initiatives both in front of and behind the camera. The specialized film company’s movie The Danish Girl, which won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (Alicia Vikander) and which was inspired by the lives of Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, comes to Blu-ray^™, DVD and On Demand today, Tuesday, March 1^st, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

Ernst said, “The trans movement may be making headlines, but our rich history is often overlooked. Trans people have always existed, and have lived many different lives. The central theme of We’ve Been Around is stated in the title. We’ve been here, throughout time, often hidden in plain sight. These stories show us just how important it is to share our histories.”

The episodes of We’ve Been Around, which each run under six minutes, and the Time Inc. websites premiering them alongside The Advocate, are as follows:

• S.T.A.R. (debuting on People.com and Advocate.com) tracks the modern transgender rights movement via the activism of Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, participants in the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

• Little Axe (debuting on EW.com and Advocate.com) profiles trans man Wilmer Broadnax, a popular gospel singer known as “Little Axe,” and his brother Willie Broadnax, as they sang their way to success from the 1940s to the 1970s.
• Lou Sullivan (debuting on EW.com and Adovcate.com) recounts the life of Lou Sullivan, a pioneering transgender gay man and AIDS activist.
• Albert Cashier (debuting on People.com and Advocate.com) illuminates the 19^th-century trailblazing of Albert Cashier, a transgender man who fought in the Civil War.

• Lucy Hicks Anderson (debuting on Essence.com and Advocate.com) recounts the story of Lucy Hicks Anderson, a woman of color who thrived during Prohibition and stood her ground to protect her marriage rights after being exposed as a transgender woman.