Filmmaker and protagonist reunite twenty-five years after Lisa Leeman chronicled evangelical artist Gabi’s gender transition in Leeman’s acclaimed 1990 documentary Metamorphosis (Sundance Filmmakers Trophy, POV/PBS). In this ‘unexpected sequel,’ they interrogate the documentary filmmaking process as Gabi pursues her lifelong dream of artistic triumph and strives for a secure home and a welcoming church. Together, Gabi and Lisa challenge ideas that aging equals decline; that gender is binary; that we can be too old to reach for our dreams. Weaving observational footage, clips from Metamorphosis, and Gabi’s own animation, Walk by Me moves seamlessly through past and present, reminding audiences that trans people have always been here and always will be, and that trans rights are human rights. (Supported by Catapult Film Fund, Sundance Documentary Film Program, MacDowell, Bogliasco, and private donors)
Status
Production
About the Filmmakers
Director/Producer/Co-Cinematographer/Co-editor
Lisa Leeman
Lisa Leeman has been directing and producing award-winning feature documentaries for thirty-five years. Her cinematic portraits, shot over many years, illuminate contemporary social issues through intimate character-driven stories that follow people at critical turning points in their lives. She is a 2024 MacDowell Fellow and a 2025 Bogliasco Fellow, for which she continued writing and editing her film Walk by Me, a portrait of an evangelical transgender artist’s life over thirty-five years, a follow-up to her groundbreaking first documentary, Metamorphosis (Sundance Filmmakers Trophy; POV/PBS, 1990). Filmed over nine years, Walk by Me weaves past and present to explore aging and friendship, art and resiliency, faith and gender -- and the blurred boundaries in documentary filmmaking. Roger Ebert cited Leeman’s ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT as one of the best documentaries of 2011. Other acclaimed films include Out of Faith, Who Needs Sleep (with Haskell Wexler), Awake, and Crazy Wisdom. Lisa has also edited award-winning documentaries for the celebrated filmmakers Stanley Nelson; Renee Tajima-Pena; Michele Ohayon; Micha Peled; Lourdes Portillo. A member of the Motion Picture Academy and a tenured professor and endowed chair at University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, Lisa teaches documentary filmmaking and cinematic ethics. She writes articles about the ethics of documentary filmmaking and co-chairs the DPA Ethics subcommittee. Her films have been distributed domestically and internationally, and supported by the Sundance Documentary Program, Catapult Film Fund, the Producers Guild, American Film Institute, National Endowment for the Arts, and California Humanities Council.