The People's Joker (partially found unauthorized trans joker movie; 2022)

Banner of the Movie

Status: Partially Found

The People's Joker is an American superhero movie directed and written by Vera Drew that unofficially makes use of characters from the Batman and Superman franchises with the main character being a transgender version of the titular Joker. With the latter character played by Drew, the film premiered on September 13, 2022, at the 2022 on Toronto International Film Festival. The movie was played only once and all planned re-screenings of the movie were canceled due to copyright issues.^[1]

Premise

Joker the Harlequin (played by Vera Drew) is a trans woman and an aspiring comedian from Smallville trying to have a career as a comedian in Gotham City. She enters an emotionally manipulative relationship with another transgender Joker called Mr. J (played by Kane Distler) who is inspired by the Joker from Ayer's Suicide Squad movie. She teams up with The Penguin (played by Nathan Faustyn) and fights a homosexual version of the Batman who formerly groomed Mr. J and rules Gotham with an iron fist. It's a queer coming-of-age superhero movie with gender, comedy, and 'mommy' issues as themes. ^[2]

Availability

On September 14th, 2022, a day after the film had premiered, all subsequent screenings of the film were canceled. The website for TIFF stated, "The filmmaker has withdrawn this film due to rights issues". According to Vera, "a media conglomerate" sent an angry letter (misreported as a 'cease and desist') pressuring to not screen shortly before the premiere. The moviemakers tried to obtain a copyright exemption under fair use "Any copyright or trademark infringement was not done intentionally", among other things. In a statement to Variety, Drew said: "We’re looking for buyers and distribution partners who will protect us and make this film accessible to trans people and their families everywhere". ^[3] As of 2023, the film has not seen a distributor.