About Me

André is a latinx filmmaker, educator, and community organizer. He founded the Transgender Oral History Project in 2007, and created a traveling multimedia history exhibition in 2009. Director/Producer of I Live for Trans Education, André developed a curriculum alongside four documentary shorts. I Live reached over 20,000 people through online views, installations, community events, and train-the-trainer sessions. After experiencing homelessness as a youth, Andre went on to help launch El Rescate and co-found Project Fierce Chicago, both transitional housing programs for LGBTQ youth. 

He recorded 500 interviews as part of StoryCorps (2012-2015), including 50 broadcasted segments. The Association of Independent Radio named him one of the voices that will change the face of public media in 2015. In 2016, he appeared on NewCity’s 50 influential filmmakers in Chicago and premiered his first docu-series, Been T/Here, in the inaugural season of OpenTV. 

Andre Directed and Produced America in Transition (2019), a Sundance-backed documentary series exploring community, family, and social issues with trans people of color. The series screened at over 100 venues internationally. Perez created a social impact campaign that brought difficult conversations to the South and Midwest coordinating 65+ workshops, presentations, and lectures at colleges, community centers, and art spaces – all lead by trans people of color. He’s now working as Producer of A Run for More and Desire Lines. He is seeking freelance work in Communications Strategy, Video Production, and Social Impact Production.​​

Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION

• BA in American Studies with concentration in Transgender Film & History, ​2006, Marlboro College
• Emerging Executive Director's Track, 2014, Creating Change Conference
• Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, 2012, Allied Media Conference
• Immersive Spanish for Community Organizers (8 weeks), 2018, Proyecto Linguistco de Quetzaltenago
• Managing to Change the World, 2021, Management Center
• Initiating and Planning Projects Certificate, 2021, UC Irvine

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EMPLOYMENT 

Make Lore Inc (2016-current)
Freelance Social Impact and Strategic Communications Consultant, Film Producer

• Managed 20+ projects with budgets of up to $500K including intergrated marketing, social media, inflencer marketing, content production, print, paid advertising, earned media, etc.
  
• Film Producer: AMERICA IN TRANSITION (premiered at Outfest Fusion), A RUN FOR MORE (premiered at Frameline 2022), and DESIRE LINES (in progress)
  
• Communications strategy and media production for community organizations including: Third Wave Foundation (New York, NY), Lighthouse Foundation (Chicago, IL), Eye Witness (New York, NY), Keeping it LITE (Chicago, IL), the Chicago History Museum (Chicago, IL), and The Tenderloin Museum (San Francisco, CA), and Hire Trans Chicago

Allied Media Projects (2019-2022)
Director of Communications

• Recruited, trained and managed one full-time staff and one intern alongside 5 contractors (web development, PR, and photography)
  
• Increased engagement across all existing social media platforms: Twitter (460%), Instagram (370%), and Meta (90%) to garner over 1.25 million impressions per year
  
• Added 4K people to the newsletter and increased the open rate from 18% to 42%
  
• Oversaw program re-branding and launch with coordinated website launch, pitch packet, PR campaign, and event series promotion
  

Transgender Oral History Project (2007 – 2020)
Founder and National Director

• Recruited and led a collective of 20 members with 30 long-term volunteers
  
• Initiated and managed a community-driven project including 100 interviews, a self-publishing hub with 40 titles, 5 multimedia installations, 3 residencies, a traveling exhibition, and community events
  
• Established funding base for projects through grants, donor cultivation, online fundraising, and contracts
  
• Created, maintained and evaluated systems to support leadership development, volunteer accountability, fundraising, and content development

Trans Lifeline (2015-2017)
Director of Communications and Marketing

• Tripled our communications and development capacity by recruiting, training, and supervising eight pro bono volunteers who helped build an online audience of 37,000 people who we engaged to recruit 700 volunteers, answer 16,000 phone calls, and add 10,000 new donors.
  
• Spearheaded a communications and development strategy that increased our revenue from $125K in 2015 to $1.14M in 2017
  
• Helped build the organization by attracting mainstream media attention (ie.. New York Times, TIME, and USA Today), leveraging social capital, and fostering collaboration across the organization
  
• Strategic thought partner to executive team who helped design and implement an advocacy campaign that shifted the American Association of Suicidology standards to prevent police violence

Storycorps (2013-2015)
Community Engagement Specialist

• Forged and managed over 100 community partnerships with cultural institutions, community organizations, and schools to recruit 4,000 storytellers
  
• Facilitated 600 conversations including over 50 that were featured on NPR’s Morning Edition & WBEZ Collaborated to plan quarterly public events for up to 150 people from target demographics

Puerto Rican Cultural Center (2012)
Empowerment Coordinator

• Recruited, trained, and managed a team of 12 outreach and education specialists for a peer-to-peer intervention with Latinx men ages 18-24

SEIU Local 1 (2010-2012)
Communications Coordinator

• Created website, social media, and online content

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INDEPENDENT FILM & MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS
(See samples under My projects and Clients tabs)

America in Transition (AIT) (various)
Director, Sundance-backed documentary series exploring community, family, and social issues with BIPOC trans folks. AIT’s community engagement campaign sought to bring needed conversations to conservative areas, and so we partnered with 85 universities, comunity organizations, and cultural institutions to host 100 events. Learn more at:

I Live for Trans Education (2013)
Director, I Live is a multimedia toolkit made up of short docs and a grassroots curriculum about social issues impacting the trans community. Self-distributed nationally through train-the-trainer workshops with 400+ youth leaders by hosting two LGBTQ youth summits in collaboration with Lambda Legal, IL Safe Schools Alliance, and five local youth organizations.
​
A Run for More (2022)
Producer, feature-length documentary, strategic planning, grant writing, crowdfunding, editorial input, and social impact strategy. 

Desire Lines (current, pre-production)
Producer, feature-length hybrid documentary exploring trans men in gay male sexual spaces via archival materials, interviews, and narrative sequences.

Chinga La Migra: Abolish ICE (2018)
Cinematographer and Editor, Went on a multi-city grassroots tour with Mijente and web series. Film featured in national and local news outlets including Univision, trending hashtag, introduced abolishing ICE to the national conversation.

Been T/Here (2016)
Director, A documentary web series (105 min total) about trans people of color in love commissioned as part of the inaugural season of OpenTV (Now OTV).

Chain Reaction (2011)
Participatory audio project with homeless LGBTQ youth focusing on experiences with police. We collaborated to develop a curriculum, host a community event challanging local business owners to adopt alternatives to policing, and created a segment for broadcast on Vocalo.

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EXHIBITIONS 

• Group Exhibition, An Oral History of Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, San Francisco, CA, 2020. 
• Group Exhibition, Brown Paper Wrapper, Logan Center for the Arts at University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2015 
• Group Exhibition, Making Chances: A Retrospective, Gal- lery 400 at University of Illinois Chicago, 2015 
• Highlighted as part of a curated show featuring awardees 
• Solo Exhibition, Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT, 2009 
• Solo Exhibition, Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle, Digital Center for Public Humanities at Iowa State University, 2013 
• Solo Exhibition, Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle, Drury Gallery at Marlboro College, 2009 
• Solo Exhibition, Community in Transition: 40 Years of Struggle, Translating Identities Conference at University of Vermont in Burlington, VT, 2009 ​

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ARTIST’S RESIDENCIES 

• Docs in Progress Artist in Residence (2017) Washington, DC, a two-week paid residency with two public presentations and a community screening. I represented Docs in Progress at American Film Institute Documentary Festival. 
• SWARM Artist’s Residency (2016), Wisconsin, Retreat for Midwest artists encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and experimentation. 
• Trans History Resides Here (2011)
• Gender & Sexuality Center at University of Illinois Chicago, A two-month residency and solo exhibition incorporating populist art, oral history interviews, archival materials, and four interactive workshops. 

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WORKSHOPS FACILITATED

Intersectionality in our Work

• Nov 2018, Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, PA
• Feb 2018, MA Institute of Technology, Boston, MA
• Nov 2017, James Madison University, Harrisburg, VA 

Forging Families the Work for Us

• Nov 2019, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill • April 2017, GLSEN Youth Summit Springfield, MO
• Oct 2017, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
• Oct 2017, Green Mountain Crossroads, Brattleboro, VT 

The Visibility Contradiction: Why Are Trans People Dying in An Age of Celebrity

• April 2019, Sanford University, Stanford, CA
• Oct 2017, Translating Identities Conference, Burlington, VT
• Nov 2016, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 

Drone Live Streaming? The Future is here.

• July 2016, SWARM Artist’s Residency, Rural Wisconsin 

I Live for Trans Education Workshops

• Jan 2016, Creating Change, Chicago, IL
• June2015, United Latin@ Pride, Chicago, IL
• Jan 2015, Creating Change, Denver, CO
• June 2015, Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI
• Oct 2013, History Center of Thompkins County, Ithaca, NY 

Storytelling and Interviewing 101

• June 2015, Chicago History Museum, Chicago, IL 
• Feb 2015, Chicago House, Chicago, IL 
• I Live for Trans Education Train-the-Trainer
• Oct 2014, IL Safe School Alliance, Chicago, IL 
• May 2014, IL Safe School Alliance, Chicago, IL  
• May 2013, Center on Halsted, Chicago, IL 

Oral History For Social Change

• June 2013, Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI 
• Movement Building and Breaking
• April 2013, Iowa University, Iowa City, IA
• April 2013, Iowa Public Library, Iowa City, IA
• March 2011, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL 

Trans Community Story Share

• Nov 2012, Philadelphia Folklore Center, Philadelphia, PA 
• June 2012, Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI ​

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SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS 
Keynote

• Nov 2016, Trans Day of Remembrance at the Unitarian Universalist Church, Peoria, IL 
• Back To The Future: A Trans Retrospective in Film
• March 2017, GenderReel, Minneapolis, MN 

A Decade of Collecting Trans Histories

• Dec 2019, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
• Dec 2019, Sephora, San Francisco, CA
• Nov 2018, James Madison University, Harrisburg, VA
• March 2015, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 

Growing Up Trans in the South

• March 2017, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC
• March 2017, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
• March 2017, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
• April 2017, Loyola University, New Orleans, LA 
• Contemporary Lessons from Transgender History (Panel)
• Jan 2016, Creating Change, Chicago, IL 
• Documenting Community (Panel)
• April 2019, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 

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EVENT ORGANIZING 
Latinx Artist’s Salon
June 2017, Co-organized and spoke on a panel of latinx queer artists about how cultural and sexual identity shape our artistic practices. 

Chicago Home Theater Festival
May 2016, Co-organized and hosted a curated evening of performances from local youth artists. 

Orgullo en Acción presents: Latin@ Pride Picnic 
June 2012, June 2013, June 2014, June 2015, Co-Produced a picnic with performances, food, and vendors for over 200 people

Queering Black Histories with Our Stories
Feb 2015, Produced audio stories and a listening party for 100 with Chicago Urban League and Affinity 

StoryCorps Chicago OutLoud Launch
Sept 2014, Directed short and co-produced a release party with a storytelling and performance showcase. 

Trans People Making Media: A How To Series
Monthly Feb-July 2013, Recruited trans artists to teach community workshops in topics ranging from web design to comic drawing to video production 

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ACCOLADES
2020    The 41 List Honoree
2017    Docs in Progress Artist Residency, BritDoc Queer Social Impact Lab
2016    Newcity’s 50 Most Influential Filmmakers in Chicago
2015    Assoc. of Independent Radio New Voices Scholar
2016    SWARM Artist's Residency
2014    Museum of Transgender History and Art Award 
2013    Trans 100 Honoree
2011     Trans History Resides Here, University of Illinois, Chicago

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SCREENINGS
2019

• 12/13, AIT EP1-2, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT
• 12/05, AIT EP2, Sephora, San Francisco, CA
• 11/18, AIT EP1-2, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• 6/28, AIT Webseries, Queer Root, New Orleans, LA
• 6/12, AIT EP2, KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival
• 6/5, AIT Webseries, Western Mass Recovery Learning Community, Holyoke, MA
• 4/18, AIT EP1-4, Ingersoll Gender Center, Seattle, WA
• 4/15, AIT EP1-4, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
• 4/12, AIT EP1-4, TransFaith, Philadelphia, PA
• 4/12, AIT EP1-4, Keeping it LITE, Chicago, IL
• 4/10, AIT EP1-4, Trans of Color, Urbana, IL
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, The Center for Sexuality & Gender Diversity, Bakersfield, CA
• 3/31, Where Is My Refuge? AIT EP1, Reel Q Film Festival Opening Night, Pittsburgh, PA
• 3/31, AIT Digital Shorts EP1, Qflix Film Festival Web Series Block, Philadelphia, PA
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Spectrum Queer Media at the Oakland LGBT Center, Oakland, CA
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Southern Fried Queer Pride, Atlanta, GA
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Open Door, Elgin, IL
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Riverfront Museum Megascreen, Peoria, IL
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, TransKentucky and Pride Community Services Organization, Lexington, KY
• 3/31, AIT Webisodes, Louisville Youth Group, Louisville, KY
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, GLSEN & GLO Center, Springfield, MO
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Storycorps, New York City, NY
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, The Pinhook, Durham, NC
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Ministries Beyond Welcome, Winston-Salem, NC
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, TransPonder, Eugene, OR
• 3/31, AIT EP1-4, Trans Support Group, Galveston, TX
• 3/31, A Family Matter, AIT EP2, Out in Wyoming and PFLAG, Casper, WY      
• 3/29, America in Transition (AIT) Digital Shorts, Ep1-3, Howard Brown Health Center and Powerhouse Church of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• 3/29, AIT Digital Shorts, Oak Park Library, Oak Park, IL
• 3/30, AIT EP1-4, Qulture Collective, Oakland, CA
• 3/30, AIT EP1-4, Pride Center of West New York, Buffalo, NY
• 3/30, A Family Matter, AIT EP2, DC Area Transmasculine Society, Washington DC

2018

• America in Transition (AIT) Digital Shorts, Ep1-3, University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL
• AIT Digital Shorts, Ep1-3, HIPS, Washington DC
• AIT Digital Shorts, Ep1-3, California College for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
• AIT Digital Short Ep1, Keeping it LITE, Chicago, IL
• A Family Matter, Ep2, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
• AIT: A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, Birmingham Southern, Birmingham, AL
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse, WI
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep 2, Oak Park & River Forest High School, Oak Park, IL
• Been T/Here Season 1, Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, Philadelphia, PA

2017

• AIT Ep 1-3, Outfest Fusion, Los Angeles, CA
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, New Fest, New York, NY
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, Series Fest, Denver, CO
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, Translations, Seattle, WA
• AIT Ep 1-3, GenderReel, Minneapolis, MN
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, Palm Springs LGBT Film Festival, Palm Springs, FL
• Called to Serve, AIT Ep3, Premiere, Chicago, IL
• A Family Matter, AIT Ep2, Open TV showcase at the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL
• AIT Ep 1-3, Translating Identities Conference, Burlington, VT
• AIT Ep 1-3, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC
• AIT Ep 1-3, Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL
• A Family Matter, AIT EP2, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
• AIT Ep2, Portland State University, Portland, OR
• AIT Ep1-2, Common Grounds, Charlottesville, VA
• AIT Ep2, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
• America in Transition Episodes 1-3, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT

2016

• Been T/Here Season 1, Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, Philadelphia, PA
• AIT Ep 1&2, Official Launch Party, Chicago, IL
• Been T/Here, Open TV Premiere, Chicago, IL
• Learning to Recognize Myself, AIT EP1, Allied Media Conference, Detroit, MI
• Learning to Recognize Myself, AIT EP1, Rhodes College, Memphis, TN