Director Vera Drew on the queerness in superhero movies

Up until recently, the  multi-talented Vera Drew had worked primarily as an editor and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for her work on “Who is America?” Her most recent project is as director and star of the crowd funded “The People’s Joker,” a queer parody of “The Joker.” Her film premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Drew, who is trans, says there is a lot of queer subtext in the superhero genre, so it wasn’t a stretch to have a main character who is trans in her film. She says she incorporated Jerry Springer-like scenes in her film because his show was one of the only places that had trans representation on television when she was growing up. And she talks about a breakthrough moment she had as a child about her own gender identity while watching a “Batman” film.