This year, filmmaker and visual artists Nyala Moon, and the collaborative duo riel and Bianca Sturchio, stand out as bold storytellers shaping the landscape of LGBTQ+ art. Both recipients of Queer|Art’s prestigious 2024 grants—the Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists for Moon and the Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers for the riel and Bianca Sturchio—these artists bring distinct yet intersecting visions to life, using their work to uplift, provoke, and connect.
Moon’s films, celebrated for their humor, emotional depth, and technical skill, offer fresh portrayals of trans experiences, challenging stereotypes and expanding narratives in LGBTQ+ cinema. Meanwhile, riel and Bianca Sturchio’s long-term photography project, before the last lilac blooms, explores queerness, disability, and family with a careful, intimate lens, bringing to light tender complexities rarely seen in mainstream art spaces.
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Nyala Moon, a City College MFA graduate in film production and GLAAD Year 1 EMEI Cohort Filmmaker, has established herself as a powerful voice in LGBTQ+ cinema. A former Queer|Art Film Fellow (2020-2021), TV writing fellow with Hillman Grad, and Film Fatales director fellow, Moon has made waves with her recent film *How Not To Date While Trans*, which has garnered awards at the Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival, Wicked Queer Boston, Translation Seattle, and NewFest 22. In 2022, Moon received the NewFest/Netflix New Voices Filmmaker Grant, and her film was selected for Frameline’s New Voices distribution. Her latest short film, *Dilating For Maximum Results*, earned the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding US Short at OutFest and NewFest. Recognized by *Filmmaker Magazine* as one of 2023’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, Moon initially pursued acting but ultimately found her purpose behind the camera, using film to portray trans women as complex, fully realized people. Her debut short after grad school, *How Not To Date While Trans*, confronts stereotypes around the trans dating experience, challenging limiting perspectives and advocating for a broader understanding. Moon explains, “My work has been and will be for two different audiences. I want my trans siblings to watch my work and feel seen, but I also want to teach cishet people how to love us… I use the niche topic specific to the trans community and tie it with universal themes like love and loneliness. My greatest mission as an artist is to universalize the trans experience for everyone.”
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Bianca Sturchio (she/her) is a mixed-media artist with an MSW (2020) and BSW (2019) from the University of Southern Maine. Her work blends social work and photography, examining how art can function as a therapeutic and communicative tool in both clinical and non-clinical settings. riel Sturchio (they/she) is a queer, chronically ill artist who uses their work to challenge societal ideals around beauty, ability, and gender identity. They draw from a background in critical queer phenomenology, bodily disorientation, and affect theory to explore the sculptural nature of sound, the nuances of touch, and the importance of bodily awareness.
Their joint project, *before the last lilac blooms*, is a fifteen-year photographic exploration of queer, non-normative sibling bonds. Through both documentary and staged images, the project weaves immersive, dream-like color to reflect their shared experiences with illness, creating an intimate visual world.
In this exclusive interview, Moon and the Sturchios reflect on their artistic journeys, the significance of being recognized by Queer|Art, and the profound impact they hope their work will have on audiences and the broader LGBTQ+ community.
GLAAD x Nyala Moon
GLAAD: Congratulations on winning the 2024 Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists! How does this recognition from Queer|Art affirm your journey as a filmmaker, and what impact do you hope it will have on your career?
Moon: Thank you! I’ve always admired the work that Queer|Art has done to support queer artists, especially with the Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women. For me, this is an essential milestone in my artistic journey. It has always been important to me to create work that resonates with my community. And to be recognized with the Illumination Grant shows me that my work is doing that.
GLAAD: Your work is known for blending humor with deep personal experiences, especially in films like How Not to Date While Trans. How do you balance such contrasting tones, and what draws you to this particular storytelling approach?
Moon: Balancing humor with my films’ more personal aspects is something I approach carefully. For me, humor is a tool that allows people to connect with complex, often difficult subjects in a more accessible and disarming way. Life, especially when you’re part of a marginalized community, is filled with joy and struggle, and that blend makes it feel authentic. I’m drawn to this storytelling approach because it allows for vulnerability without forcing people to feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable. Humor becomes a bridge to empathy—audiences laugh, and in doing so, they let their guard down, which opens them up to understanding something deeper.
GLAAD: Your latest short film, Dilating for Maximum Results, has garnered significant praise and awards. Can you share the inspiration behind this project and how you approached it?
Moon: Dilating for Maximum Results comes from a personal place, inspired by my experiences with transition and the journey of navigating it authentically. I wanted to address an aspect of trans life that doesn’t often enter broader conversations—the ongoing, physical side of transition that is both medical and deeply personal. Dilating, in particular, is something to which many trans people can relate, yet it is rarely discussed openly, even within our communities. After my first short, I wanted to flex more of my comedic muscles and tell a story that leans into an irreverent approach. I also wanted to pull from trans online culture/iconography and how it’s shaped the modern trans experience. In the late aughts and early 2010s, the internet and social media platforms have allowed trans people to find information and community.
GLAAD: Looking forward, what can audiences expect from your upcoming projects, and how do you see your work evolving in the future?
Moon: I’m developing new projects that continue exploring the intersection of humor and deeply personal narratives but with fresh perspectives and perhaps even a new genre approach. I’m excited to delve into new stories that challenge me creatively and push conversations about identity, community, and resilience further. I am in post-production for my first feature film. I USED TO BE A WOMAN, BUT I GIVE IT ALL UP FOR GOD, a mockumentary about an ex-LGBTQ group. I am also working on a fantasy novel! Keep an eye out—there’s a lot in the works!
GLAAD: In an industry that often marginalizes or misunderstands the trans experience, how do you navigate creating work that speaks authentically to your community while also reaching and educating broader audiences?
Moon: The lie is that trans stories aren’t universal, but they are! In the same way, I’ve always been able to connect with the millions of media that tell cis stories. I know that cis people can relate to trans stories because even though we have different experiences. At the heart of all is that we are looking for similar things and navigating this human experience. The most important thing for me is creating the work! I am incredibly humbled that my work is reaching border audiences. However, the most important thing for me is creating work that I hope allows transwomen to feel seen. Trans cinema is still in its infancy, and being in an industry that doesn’t always make space for us can be challenging, but I try to embrace that as motivation. It’s empowering to know that I am creating authentic work that contributes to our growing community of trans filmmakers and telling our stories!
GLAAD x Bianca Sturchio // riel Sturchio
GLAAD: Congratulations on receiving the 2024 Robert Giard Grant! How does it feel to have before the last lilac blooms recognized, and what does this grant mean for the future of your work together?
riel: The funding came at a pivotal time for our project and for the kind of representation I hope to bring to the Midwest, so it feels incredibly validating. This grant will allow us to host a large exhibition during Pride month in Iowa, which is a significant first for us. It will allow us to broaden the scope of how we physically share our work in a space. It’s an exciting opportunity to share our work with a wider public audience, and I hope it helps us get more momentum for the book we’ve been working on for the last several years.
Bianca: I’m incredibly excited to have our work recognized, especially since we’ve put so much effort into compiling these images and creating the narrative for our exhibition. The grant is directly supporting the exhibition by covering the costs of materials needed for installation and framing—hanging art can be surprisingly expensive, and these costs have been prohibitive for us in the past. We’re also working on an artist book that will combine text with a larger curation of images from the series, which is something we’re both really excited to pursue.
GLAAD: As twins and collaborators, what is your creative process like? How do your individual perspectives and experiences influence the direction of your joint projects?
riel: I feel fortunate that Bianca and I have a strong channel of communication. We talk almost every day, even if it’s just sharing an inside-joke emoji that only we understand. This ongoing connection plays a big role in our creative process. We spend a lot of time on FaceTime, discussing the kind of story we want to tell, reflecting on past decisions, and checking in to make sure we’re still aligned or to see how our perspectives may have evolved. I come from a background in photography, so my approach is heavily influenced by technical aspects, photographic theory and the role images play in visual culture.
Bianca: I’d describe our process as highly collaborative, and we’re committed to honest communication, especially when something feels significant or when we disagree. Curating photos for our narrative required open dialogue. Sometimes, a photo that resonated with riel aesthetically might have portrayed a narrative that felt uncomfortable to me, while images I loved sometimes sparked strong reservations for riel. When we’re the subjects, rather than photographing landscapes or objects, the comfort of the person in the photo takes precedence. We want each other to feel confident about the images we’re sharing, especially since they’re on public display. Our discussions are ongoing and intentional.
While riel has a background in fine art and photography, I come from social work and sociology, where compassion, empathy, and ethics are at the forefront. Through the nature of my profession, I’ve learned how to approach topics with sensitivity and nonjudgement, and I recognize the value of vulnerability. These values often guide my decisions, but I think both of our perspectives are imperative to the work we make. Our contrasting viewpoints spark dialogue and invite reinterpretation, creating work that is dynamic and layered. This collaborative tension allows us to explore relevant social themes from multiple angles, creating work that resonates broadly while staying deeply personal.
GLAAD: What have been some of the most meaningful or surprising discoveries for you both while working on before the last lilac blooms?
riel: The surprises just keep coming! One of the most impactful has been how this project has deepened my connection with Bianca—not just as siblings, but as creatives and co-facilitators of Begin Collective. It’s given us a reason to carve out time for one another, which has only strengthened our bond, and for that, I’m incredibly grateful. The project has also allowed me to reflect on important moments in my life and share those memories with Bianca in ways that siblings rarely get the chance to explore. Our willingness to continue with the project has been a gift in so many unexpected ways!
Bianca: I think our project has allowed riel and I to understand each other’s worldviews and creative processes in a new and different way, which has felt meaningful. I’ve gained a new understanding and appreciation of how photographs can be interpreted or ‘read’ by an audience, and I now put more thought into that than I used to. I’ve also learned how to exercise more patience when I’m communicating my creative ideas, which is essential to our process but not something I anticipated as an outcome. My disability often makes the actual act of taking photos difficult as the process requires stillness and sharp vision–so riel often takes on that role, or hands me a cable release to fire, which requires communication and patience. Sometimes there are technical barriers—like not enough light or the perspective not working visually—but riel is able to identify what is and isn’t working, and helps me understand the technical side in a way that makes sense to me. There are moments when we decide to go for it, even if the settings aren’t ideal, and that’s been exciting, too. I really appreciate that riel is open to all of my ideas, even the ones that are half-baked, because they sometimes turn into incredible photographs that exceed our expectations. What means the most to me is being able to spend time together, and our series has greatly facilitated that.
GLAAD: As artists who explore bodily awareness and queerness through photography, what are you hoping audiences take away from your work, especially regarding societal perceptions of beauty, ability, and gender?
riel: Ideally, I hope our work leaves audiences with a sense of curiosity about the expectations they hold for themselves and the ones society imposes on them. By confronting these perceptions—whether of beauty, ability, or gender—I want viewers to question and reflect on the ways these norms shape their understanding of themselves and others, and to perhaps feel empowered to embrace their own understandings of these concepts.
Bianca: When I first started learning about disability justice and activism, I encountered the phrase, “you can’t be what you can’t see.” It highlights how difficult it is to envision oneself in public spaces when those roles aren’t visibly filled by people who share the same characteristics. Applying that to our photos, I hope queer and disabled audience members see themselves in our photos and feel empowered to share their own experiences in ways that are meaningful to them. Our experiences are unique, but they’re also marked by the normalcy of everyday life, which I hope comes through. While some aspects of living with a disability or marginalized identity are nuanced, much of it is simply life, filled with the same routines, joys, and challenges everyone encounters.
GLAAD: With LGBTQ+ and women’s rights under threat, especially in the Midwest, how do you see your art as advocacy, and how do you hope for your first solo exhibition you’re planning there to play a role in that work?
riel: While I hesitate to label us as capital ‘A’ activist artists—aware that others are engaged in critical, on-the-ground actions like fundraising, providing direct aid to marginalized communities recovering from disasters, or supporting relief efforts for the ongoing genocide—I believe that my (and our) perspective holds value, positively contributing to the visual culture surrounding disabled and LGBTQ+ communities. Having experienced the medical-industrial complex as an AFAB person on the disability spectrum and faced discrimination as a queer individual, I see our art as a means to illuminate the persistent injustices many of us endure. Through this work, I hope to create space for reflection and dialogue around women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights through exhibition programming that, for example, invites the public into a moderated discussion between artists, scholars, and historians–maybe even physicians. We have the opportunity to have a great impact especially in the Midwest where people’s freedoms are increasingly at risk.
Bianca: I agree with riel’s response and I’ll add on: I see before the last lilac blooms as a space for visibility and solidarity, but also greater understanding. Although the photos focus on my sibling and me, my hope is that others can relate to certain parts. I want our images to demonstrate that every person’s lived reality holds inherent value, and foster a space where viewers feel validated, seen, and connected. If they don’t feel connected, I invite their curiosity. At the heart of any activism, big or small, lies an awareness of the broader social forces that grant privilege to some while creating marginalization for others–all of which are grounded in context. If our work can spark a conversation about these dynamics, I consider that a powerful outcome.
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Be sure to follow along Nyala Moon’s film journey on all their socials! As well as riel and Bianca’s artwork and upcoming showcases!