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Bullseye with Jesse Thorne is a production of maximum fund.org

and is distributed by NPR. It's Bullseyeye. I'm Jesse Thorne. There's a new movie out called Monica. Maybe you heard about it. Maybe you missed it. It was released last year. It wasn't a blockbuster.

But it did get a record-setting standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival. And it's up for some awards.

Monica stars my guest Trace Lissette. She plays Monica.

As the movie starts, she's on her own, in early middle age, doing sex work, just kind of getting

by. And she gets a phone call. Her mom is sick, and she doesn't have much time left.

Monica is estranged from her mom and has been since she came out as trans.

So Monica goes home to help her brother care for her mother.

And when she gets there, her mom doesn't recognize her.

Monica doesn't tell her mom who she is.

She just cares for her.

It could have been a big melodrama. Instead, it's the furthest thing from that, a quiet, intimate, beautiful movie about family love.

The film Gautlicet nominated for Best Lead Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Trace Lissette grew up in Dayton, Ohio.

She found her first community in the few queer clubs that that area offered.

She spent a good portion of her 20s as a sex worker living in New York City.

She's been a professional actor for about a decade.

You might have seen her on law and order or transparent. And as you'll

hear later on, she is also a pretty decent rapper. One quick note before we go on, as I mentioned mentioned she worked as a sex worker and we are going to talk about that work in some detail in this conversation.

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