FINDING BERNIE is a feature documentary about a film professor who comes out as non-binary and sets out to resolve their life-long struggle with gender. As they search for their gender non-conforming childhood role model, Bernie, Shon Keane takes a road trip with a group of intergenerational trans people, befriends a trans historian and discovers how, for many trans folks, the personal is political.

Director’s Statement

Shon Keane’s love for trans people anchors FINDING BERNIE, a film that approaches its subject matter from the inside out. Shon first encountered a trans person at the age of 5, experiencing an immediate affinity and identification. Back then, Shon’s young mind was still in a state of discovery, yet to be conditioned by the world’s transphobia. That liminal period is ground zero for this documentary - a nurturing space that holds trans people not as exotic objects of fascination or scary oddities but esteemed subjects.

Director’s Bio

Shon Keane makes films about people learning to love and laugh while living with catastrophe - both real and imagined. Their films have won awards and screened at festivals worldwide, including Hamptons, Provincetown and Telluride where their queer misfit dramedy “The Prom Queen” was selected for the “Filmmakers of Tomorrow” program. 

A graduate of the Columbia Film Division with an MFA in Directing, Shon is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at the City University of New York (BMCC) and a yoga and mindfulness instructor who in their spare time can be found in Central Park staring at trees or spinning like a whirling dervish. 

For more information: ShonKeane.com.