Lake de Gall is a U3 student at 9I制作厂免费 in the Faculty of Arts, majoring in Honors Anthropology with a minor in Linguistics. In completing the Anthropology degree, Lake has developed an interest in cultural conceptions and experiences of gender, particularly transgender and gender-variant experiences. Lake's research topic for the honors thesis, set to be completed in the Winter 2025 semester, focuses on the influence of psychoanalysis on contemporary conceptions of gender variance in North America. Throughout life, Lake has been an avid creative, drawing consistently from a young age, which remains one of their passions today. Lake has also worked as a freelance illustrator since 2017 and has recently begun exploring video production and motion design as a hobby, in which they have progressed significantly and become quite skilled. Lake is not receiving academic credit for this internship.
Lake's interest was piqued upon seeing the internship posting for Exposures Montr茅al Trans Film Festival. As a transgender creative, Lake was excited about the opportunity to be surrounded by others like them and to learn from more experienced creatives. Having previously only worked in customer service, Lake was eager to experience an alternative work environment.
Lake's host organization, Exposures, is a trans collective in Montr茅al organizing the city鈥檚 first-ever trans film festival. Exposures centers transgender people in its mission. To be eligible for selection, films must be directed, written, or otherwise created by trans individuals, or feature trans actors or characters. Additionally, the entire Exposures team identifies as gender diverse. The mission of Exposures is to make trans film accessible, amplifying the visions of trans creators while uplifting the experiences of BIPOC and other marginalized communities through inclusive programming. Another key aspect of Exposures' mission is to create a space for gender-diverse filmmakers and creators to connect with each other and Montr茅al鈥檚 wider queer community.
As an intern, Lake has had a variety of responsibilities. Early in the internship, tasks included researching potential funders for the festival and identifying trans public figures to invite to participate. Lake was responsible for researching prominent film festivals in Montr茅al, gathering information on their sponsors, and compiling it into a master festival spreadsheet. This research included exploring grant schemes offered by these funders and writing grant application letters. Lake also researched trans public figures and academics, collected their contact information, and brainstormed ideas for their potential involvement in the festival, all recorded in the master spreadsheet.
After this initial phase, Lake transitioned to creative work, including designing the main poster for the film festival and several alternative designs for the overall festival poster. Lake created graphics for the official festival website and, as the internship continues, is working on a series of illustrations for specific screenings and themed days of the festival, serving as the lead designer for graphics and illustrations.
A highlight of Lake's internship has been collaborating with colleagues on funding research, providing the first experience of an office workplace. Another highlight was seeing the poster Lake designed featured on the front page of the Exposures website.
One challenge that Lake encountered during their internship was that their boss at Exposures was attempting to schedule meetings and set deadlines with very little notice; sometimes, less than 24 hours. This caused me a lot of stress. Lake overcame this challenge by taking initiative and reaching out first to their boss to inquire about deadlines and meeting schedules, which helped with this issue. As Lake was taking a summer class while simultaneously working at my internship, this internship helped them improve their time management in order to be able to perform well in both areas.
The funding Lake received allowed them to pay rent while working on this internship. Lake would like to thank Dean Lisa Shapiro for the Dean of Arts Development Fund that allowed them to participate in this valuable internship experience.
