Issue 16: new gigs, screenings, and festivals!

Tilly Bridges

Tilly Bridges

— 6 min read
Tilly and Susan sitting down in a parking lot, looking up at the camera monitor during filming on “Long Away”

There’s so much to talk about! Let us explain.

No… there is too much.

Let us sum up!


NEW STUFF

one hand reaching out, palm upward, holding an enamel pin displaying four circles, and another hand reaching out, palm downward, the two hands touch at the fingertips and are bathed in pink light. text reads: LONG AWAY WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY TILLY BRIDGES & SUSAN BRIDGES SPACETIME PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS GRIFFIN KELLY JUSTIN LAWRENCE BARNES JEWEL CAVAZOS in “LONG AWAY” MUSIC BY AMY SUMMERS COSTUME DESIGN MARY-MADISON BALDO EDITED BY JESSIE EARL PRODUCTION DESIGNER AARON LOSS DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ILIANA IPES EXECUTIVE PRODUCER ERIN MACDONALD JOHN HARDIN KIT ISAMAN PRODUCED BY ERIN MACDONALD AARON LOSS JESSIE EARL, printed on foam board, on an easel in a movie theater lobby


Since our last newsletter, Long Away finished color correcting, had our full theater sound mix day, we previewed and acquired the DCP (digital cinema package, which is everything a theater needs to show the movie) for the film, and had our cast and crew screening!

It’s been a wild and magical few weeks, despite the world spiraling ever more into awfulness. And that is so damn weird, because seeing our movie in a theater on a huge screen with friends, celebrating it on a panel with the cast and at the reception afterward, all while evil people do increasingly evil things is such emotional whiplash.

We’re so glad we have joyous art creation to focus on to help us through, but it’s a surreal thing to live through one of the most exciting yet also most terrifying times of your life all at once.

A shot of Long Away cast and crew doing a panel discussion in a movie theater, in front of the screen, featuring producer Dr. Erin Macdonald, Tilly, Susan, Jessie Earl, Griffin Kelly, Jewel Cavazos, and Justin Lawrence Barnes


This is a shot someone in the audience at our screening got of the panel we did afterward, which was really fun. We love getting to talk about our art, and especially to point out to everyone how all these wonderful people we got to work with are geniuses.

Somehow, other than the photo of the key art on foam board from the theater lobby above, we didn’t think to take any photos of ourselves by the poster, in the theater, or even at the reception! Or photos with the cast and crew! What the heck. It’s almost like it was an emotionally overwhelming experience that pushed all those thoughts out of our minds. Weird!

We did have special homemade treats for the reception though (by @_fromlu on Insta), coconut lemon bars and trans pride macarons! Heck yeah.

A plate of lemon coconut bars, each with a blackberry on top, under a pile of pink, white, and blue macarons


The film’s already been submitted to tons of festivals all across the US, and even some overseas! We will let you know if and when it gets accepted to any, and hopefully has a screening you can make it to! It’s really something special seeing it in a theater. (we did, however, already get one rejection! BOOOOO!)

Other new stuff to mention:

One of our as yet unannounced graphic novels (that we finished writing last year) had a bunch more new art come in, including concept designs for some really weird space aliens! We’re so thrilled with them and hope the book gets announced soon. But we just talked with the editor today and found out it’s on their slate for... 2027. There’s a very good reason for that, which we also can’t mention yet. It’s so hard to just keep sitting on this news!

Our other as yet unannounced graphic novel (the YA queer trans romcom from Mad Cave… that we also finished writing last year) hit a bit of a delay with art, and a new artist has come on to help out, and pages are coming in and look great! Really hoping this one gets announced soon, too. It is on track for a 2026 release, though maybe in the second half of the year.


WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON

Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming is inching closer to the finish line (for us writing the scripts, anyway), as we just turned in revisions on issue 3, and the draft of issue 4 is nearly done. We're seeing art come in for issue 1 now and it's wonderful!

We did find out the first issue releases in the first week of September, though, and you can pre-order it now! Go to your local comic shop and let them know you want Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming from IDW! They can order and pull a copy of the entire five-issue series for you, as they’re released each month!

Also a new variant cover for issue 1 by David Nakayama was released, take a look!

Variant cover of the upcoming Star Trek Voyager: Homecoming comic issue #1. Seven of Nine -firing a phaser. Behind her is a burst of light with Voyager flying away from it. Behind that, a steely-eyed Captain Janeway.


Did you, uh, see the coolest (to us) part??

Bridges, Bridges, Hernandez, Kirchoff STAR TREK VOYAGER -Homecoming-


I mean, did you really see it?

Bridges, Bridges, Hernandez, Kirchoff STAR TREK


Our names right above the Star Trek logo!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

That’s one of the ding dang coolest things ever.

Since the last newsletter we also got accepted into a prose anthology that will be hitting Kickstarter later this year, and nobody is more surprised about that than us! We’re working on revising and refining our short story for it now, so stay tuned for more info on how/where/when you can read it!

We also got accepted into a new comic anthology (which will also be hitting Kickstarter either later this year or maybe early next?), so… rinse and repeat as before, keep your eyes on this here letter of news for more details!

Annnnnd we also just got a contract for another gig, but we’re not saying anything at all about it yet because that way lies jinxes and misery. Go back to crossing your fingers and toes for us, please!

We unfortunately had to turn down another comic anthology that we were invited to contribute to, because that one required a completed comic and not just a script, and they needed it by August. And we just don’t have time right now to not only brainstorm, outline, and script… but then source an artist and colorist and letterer and project manage it all until it’s complete. Sadly there’s only so much time to go around!


TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE

Okay it’s been a minute, let’s get you caught up!

First we had TRANS TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES, and how this fun (and often goofy) hobby ends up being an early way a lot of trans people experiment with gender, even if they don’t realize that’s what they’re doing. It certainly happened that way for Tilly!

And then we dove into our latest discussion of trans allegory in media (popularly known as “Tillyvision”) to discuss STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLD’S AD ASTRA PER ASPERA. It’s an episode that rocked a whole lot of trans folks’ world, and for good reason. All three parts of the discussion are out now! The above link will take you to part 1, which will lead you to the others. Boldly go on over and see just how amazing that episode is.


RECOMMENDATIONS

Duster, a Max original, key art with the cast and titular car, and a desert, painted in classic 70s movie poster style


Duster on HBO Now Double Plus Good Max (stop changing your name, we beg of you) took us completely by surprise, especially because its pilot episode is pitch perfect. Like, you could hold classes on the absolutely flawless way it establishes the world, the stakes, the setting, sets up the ongoing story engine, and the characters, and gets you to care about those characters. It’s just… it’s just like literally perfect. Truly phenomenal work that got us one hundred percent into the show.

And we weren’t sure about it at first, because a trailer we saw made it look like “ooh cis white man in his muscle car is a rebel!” And that’s a show that’s very not for us. But as happens with many trailers or previews, it was misleading, because it’s so much more than that.

It’s a gritty, pulpy 70s action crime drama… and it’s also about people from marginalized communities trying to make the world better, and push for change in ways that will benefit everyone.

And the cast is fabulous! Give it a shot if it sounds like that’s up your alley (but yes, do expect lots of fun car chases to factor in, too).


THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH

There’s nothing better than a blep.

Dirtbag Henry with the tip of his tongue sticking out


Except

for

TWO BLEPS!

Izzy with the tip of her tongue sticking out  


WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?

Big Time issue 16 has a deep dive on the importance of sound in movies and television, in all the ways you expect, but also maybe in some ways you don’t.

And we have the first page of a comic pitch from a very long time ago, that nobody in the world has ever seen! A black and white action thriller called Bulletproof.

Sign up for it at birdguestbroadcast.com and make us so happy!


THE END

Support each other.

Fight the fascists.

We’re all in this together.


SOCIALS

Tilly’s Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/tillybridges.bsky.social
Susan’s Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/susanlbridges.bsky.social
Writing website
http://birdguest.com

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