The filmmaker and author Chase Joynt discusses his new book Vantage Points: On Media as Trans Memoir (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024), with Joseph Planta.

Vantage Points: On Media as Trans Memoir by Chase Joynt (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Vantage Points

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Chase Joynt has just published a provocative, fascinating book, Vantage Points: On Media as Trans Memoir. As you’ll hear, a box of family mementos arrives and a heretofore unknown connection to Marshall McLuhan comes up. Joynt finds out all he can about distant relations, and using McLuhan’s seminal Understanding Media as an inciting framework, writes this book that looks at the legacy of childhood sexual abuse, masculinity, family, creativity, film, art, transition, gender, and more. It’s a rich book of vignettes, an often exciting tapestry of montage-like essays and illustrations. Chase joins me now, and I’ll ask him about what it was like looking back at abuse at the hands of an uncle and neglect from his father, among other traumas, and finding a way through media to understand what happened, or glean some explanation of the experiences. And as you’ll hear, the experience of the book, not just reading, but thinking about it, and looking at it, will likely glean, for the reader, some wisdom or even connection or reflection. Chase Joynt is a director and writer whose films have won a number of awards internationally. His latest documentary feature, Framing Agnes, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award, and the NEXT Audience Award. He is the co-author of the Lambda Literary Award finalist You Only Live Twice, and Boys Don’t Cry. This new book is from Arsenal Pulp Press. We spoke one week ago, with Chase joining me from Los Angeles, California. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Chase Joynt; Chase, good morning.

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