A Discussion on Gender Studies with the Cast and Crew Themselves

The SXSW Film Festival brought creatives from all over the world together to celebrate both film, feature and short length, and television. Among those who shared their stories with the Austin, Texas audience included three talented creatives, all from New York University. Writer-director Jamie Kiernan O'Brien, producer Kirsten Pasewaldt, and director of photography Sophie Seyd. Along with the creators included actor Jake Junkins. Their short film Gender Studies had its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year in January and now made its way to Texas. During the festival, and after a pre-festival watch, I got to sit down with the four creatives to discuss Gender Studies. This conversation became so enlightening. We talked about their short, about how they got to know each other, and their path for the future. 

In Gender Studies, Maisie (Jake Junkins), a transgender college woman, is obsessed with her classmate Rachel (Fannie Massarsky). From Maisie’s perspective, Rachel is the girl she wants to be, or at least imitate. Therefore, Maisie studies her every day, slowly learning about girlhood from a perfectly feminine idealistic makeup and wardrobe. Upon discovering Rachel is sleeping with their teacher’s assistant, a graduate student named Aaron (Austin Cassel), she puts a plan to the test. Trying to seduce Aaron, Maisie begins to discover things she had yet to know. What will the seduction reveal? And is girlhood, or at least this version of it, truly everything she hoped it would be?

Gender Studies is a title that could be interpreted in so many ways, at least that was my opinion. Yet when asking O’Brien why she decided to name her short the way she did, it turns out there is so much more behind it. Though she created the title as somewhat of a joke, she did say that it does have a lot to do with the story of the film. The story of envy and desire, wanting something from another girl that you do not have. But ultimately it is the study of femininity. A study into gender and how one wishes to mould themselves into the specific ideal that she has set for herself. Flip it around and Gender Studies becomes the studying of a gender.

O’Brien has created such a euphoric and original short film. This, her third short, she continues to study the realm of queer and transgender identity. Before putting together this 11-minute short film, she gave Maisie a backstory. All creative processes start here, and in Gender Studies the backstory would be the time Maisie would have spent studying Rachel prior to where we find them in the film. In O’Brien’s short, where the audience finds Maisie is the time in her life when she is ready to apply into action what she has learned from studying Rachel. The plan being the attempt to seduce her teacher’s assistant.

From my perspective, I told the four how I found there were more ways to interpret their title, which I believe led to further discussion. Appreciating O’Brien’s creation of the title, I do still think that there are different interpretations possible based on the viewer. Depending on where you feel like you see yourself or the character, the viewer has the chance to interpret the title in their own way. O’Brien described it as the study of gender, but I also explained how one could believe it to be the study of sexuality in someways — like the different forms of sexuality in gender(s).

Directing this question to Junkins, I wanted to know if her portrayal of Maisie influenced or provoked any thought into the meaning of Gender Studies as a title. Junkins portrayed Maisie in such a way that you can tell there was conversations about the character before the filming began. In their discussion together about Maisie’s background, Junkins and O’Brien knew that she was someone who had been watching others around her for sometime. With that, Junkins believes the title to be perfect. Sometimes we forget about how we are always taking in the world around us, and in doing so creating a different persona for ourselves.

As a queer viewer myself, I had the feeling upon watching Gender Studies regarding the idea of wanting to BE someone, or do you want to be WITH them? I feel like it comes up quite often in recent years, but overall it is a wonder some people have in life. The Gender Studies team never thought of this at first. That is to say, their intent was never so. Maisie always wanted to create a persona for herself based on Rachel. Then Pasewaldt and Seyd both joined our conversation here. Though O’Brien never meant for this to be an aspect of the film, the four had actually just recently discussed the idea of envy versus desire. The idea as a whole, not in relation to the film, they were talking about the line this idea bridges.

Within Gender Studies, audiences witness Maisie experiment different aspects of sex and sexual desire. Junkins’ portrayal of the character and self-interpretation help her to describe Maisie as someone who sees sex as a form or a way of self-actualizing. Rather than wanting to be with Rachel or have her as the object of her desire, the true purpose here was to use her as inspiration for how to live, how to be, and how to have sex. Perhaps it comes from my queer identity, by seeing people in terms of do they want to be them or be with them, but the creatives behind Gender Studies are most definitely up for the multiple ways their film can be interpreted by the world.

The conversation I had with O’Brien, Junkins, Pasewaldt, and Seyd honestly was eye opening, perhaps just as eye-opening as the filmmaking process was for them. In our discussion it was revealed that Gender Studies has taught them a lesson in audiences and how things can be analyzed and perceived in various ways. O’Brien is very open to interpretation. Some ideas she even suggested for the way in which Gender Studies could be described were a wacky comedy, a sad or dark drama, or even as a total thriller. Once her films are done and out in the world, she believes it is not her place to help others interpret. This idea is truly moving because it goes to show how different art can be to each individual.

There are numerous amounts of films that follow adolescent protagonists and characters. Some of which are too exaggerated and the characters become unlikeable and unrealistic. In Gender Studies, I found that O’Brien created characters and a setting that felt real and honest. In asking her about how she did so, or if it was unintentional, she discussed the importance that the film’s tone and genre be specific. Movies are always different from real life, but in Gender Studies, what occurs tends to be more down to earth in a lot of ways. Through Maisie’s heightened experience of life, that is where the movie’s fun begins. She is a transgender woman who has never experienced sex before. Her background of knowledge comes mainly from the movies that O’Brien and Junkins believe she would have watched. Though this idea is quite ordinary, O’Brien wanted to play around with it and create an overexerted experience in her film.

Gender Studies is wonderful in more ways than one. You watch the film and you obtain a different perspective on life. Yet you are also given the chance to see a transgender character who is not shown as the sidekick or the lesser of the film. In Gender Studies you get her as someone who is not a good person, and that is the magic within it. O’Brien talked a bit about how she commits herself to the transgender story in quite a lot of ways. She is aware of straight cis-women wanting to be unlikeable female characters, but why not allow transgendered females to do so as well. She feels as though it is equally dehumanizing to only have positive representations of transgender characters on the screen. So she wants to share the other side of the coin as well. Given the chance, stories like these can resonate so much more when they reach the right viewer, or an open-minded one.

Now consider outside the realm of the film itself and understand the impeccable crew that created the piece. O’Brien, Pasewaldt and Seyd are all in the same NYU graduate program and that is where the film began. Getting to know one another by the second year of their program, when it came to their second year film project, they knew they would be working together. Knowing that the project was coming, they spent the summer before preparing. It is quite funny listening to the three of them talk about how Gender Studies came to be and their influence on each other as creatives. As producer, Pasewaldt helped O’Brien smooth out some ideas, and when she came to her with a film titled Sucking Cock, they smoothed out some edges, changed a few key details, and found what worked for them.

Of course there is the fact that so many women are disrespected by men. It came into discussion between the team only recently that Gender Studies characters can be welcomed into this exact club. While O’Brien came up with the story, Pasewaldt and Seyd knew they wanted to work with her because the story was meaningful. It was something we do not see often represented on screen, a somewhat fresh and new outlook. Ideas like this that bring people together can do a lot.

Honestly, to get to sit and talk to a group such as these four, truly makes you appreciate the opportunity you get as a film journalist. You can always watch a movie, or a television series, and simply enjoy it for what it is. But what makes everything even better, and sometimes even helps your enjoyment or understanding of the content, is hearing from the cast and crew themselves.

We, or at least the girls, gays and theys, all know how important representation is on screen. These four wonderful humans I spoke to also agree on that note. O’Brien is a big supporter of “everyone telling their own story in the most honest way possible.” They understand how important it is to push this progression forward and continue to make films such as these. Speaking to them from my perspective, allows so much more to be said surrounding the film that can, and hopefully will, create a discussion. The transgender representation in the past ten years has been mainly positive. Yet although it has pushed forward, she believes that it has still been very one dimensional due to fear of being offensive to others. An issue that makes complete sense, but you do hope can shift as times change as well.

Leave it up to creatives, and actors, such as the wonderful team behind Gender Studies to help shape and pave the way for stories like these to be told. In fact, though I did ask her if she would ever want Gender Studies to become a feature, O’Brien revealed that she has a feature in the works. What makes it even more wonderful is that Pasewaldt and Seyd will be producers on the project. They also made a gesture towards Junkins with regards to possible casting, which ended in a look and some giggles.

Female creatives are honestly so sweet. After being given the privilege of seeing Gender Studies ahead of its SXSW premiere and talking to these four lovely humans, I have such a bigger love for the industry, if that is even possible. Not only did Gender Studies cause me to reflect within, it also provided a sense of entertainment value as well. Then, after our discussion, I can only now wish to support O’Brien, Pasewaldt, Seyd and Junkins in their future creative endeavours. A truly remarkable group who created a truly unique piece.