A heartwarming new short film celebrates a vital legacy of The Matrix. Commissioned by Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, filmmaker Cressa Maeve Beer created a short film titled Me and the Matrix about her personal relationship to the original Matrix film as a trans woman.
Beer specializes in stop motion, and the film features her narrating an autobiographical account over stop motion footage of her younger and adult self.
“What really resonated with me was the idea that something was wrong with the world around me,” she narrates. “I lived with my own impossible to describe feelings of disconnect from everything or even my own body. Then somewhere in my thirties, I found out why and I was able to unplug.”
Beer references the spoilery conclusion of the first film as a metaphor for realizing she’s trans. And The Matrix trilogy is commonly read as a trans allegory, especially in light of both directors coming out in the 2010s.
The short is playing ahead of screenings of The Matrix Resurrections at Alamo Drafthouse theaters across the country, and you can watch it on Beer’s YouTube channel below.
Sierra Schoenig and Minkyung Chung fabricated the puppets, and Phoebe Jane Hart created the sets. A. Sarr provided original music.
Beer’s stop motion work has previously touched on trans themes in pop culture. In 2020, her kaiju-themed short film about trans youth went viral. It depicts Godzilla raising a kaiju child and affirming their identity.
The Matrix Resurrections is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max today. WGTC gave the film three stars, calling it “one of the most ambitious and self-referential blockbusters you’re likely to see.”
