LOS ANGELES — Dana Vespoli, one of the breakout directors of the past year, won Director of the Year – Non-Feature Release at the 2014 XBIZ Awards on Friday night at the Century Plaza Hotel.
Vespoli received the award for her groundbreaking release, "Girl/Boy" starring Jiz Lee and Manuel Ferrara.
“I'm very happy that 'Girl/Boy' received recognition-—and that I won a directing award for it,” Vespoli said. “That movie meant a lot to me.”
Released in early October, Vespoli said at the time that the movie came about because of Jiz Lee.
“Jiz is neither a ‘she’ nor a ‘he,’” Vespoli explained. “Jiz is Jiz, and refuses to be identified by gender pronouns, or be recognized as female or male. It forces people to think when they address Jiz, and this raised a question for me: How do we self identify? Do we leave it up to society, or do we demand society recognize us on our own terms? I have an enormous amount of admiration for Jiz, who chooses the latter."
For more information on "Girl/Boy" and to view the trailer, click here.
