Cleopatra Jach
Acquaye
(b. 1988) Cleopatra Jach Acquaye (Sir, Her) is a Black, Trans, Queer filmmaker born and raised in The Bronx, New York. A first-generation-born child of Ghanaian immigrants, her values deeply center radical storytelling; Cleopatra defines this through transparency, centering lived experiences, and capacity-building.
She has over a decade of experience in community organizing, which informed her leadership as the interim Co-Executive Director at Lambda Literary—inspired by the Emerging Writers' cohort of 2023, she is now studying screenwriting and becoming a film director. She is a successful first-time film festival creator and program curator. Cleopatra builds narrative worlds that reflect the complexity, absurdity, and beauty of Black queer life. When Sir is not working, you can find her trying to read unread books in her apartment whilst researching new snacks to eat.
NEW YORK, NY
cleopatrajach@gmail.com
A Fresh Take on Black Surrealism
Whether it’s the chaos of a zombie apocalypse or the beaurocratic monotony of Philanthropy, Cleopatra Jach finds the joke, the twist, and humanity that can be told on screen.
Works in Pre-Production
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...And I Can't Get Up
In Screenwriting Development
A feature-length dark comedy that explores disability, dispoability, and first-generation West African family structures.
Logline: Type-A Kenya Murphy, who is dealing with a new diagnosis, must lead their family living with various disabilities through a zombie apocalypse, and a move from their childhood home.
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Untitled
Shooting Fall 2025
Working as a camera operator, set director, and production manager.
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Alms for The Rich
In Story Development
A sitcom mockumentary dark comedy that follows a black queer woman navigating the world of funding and the loss of her morals.
Logline: When her beloved nonprofit collapses, Johnetta takes the only job she can get: working for the funders who killed it. Welcome to the world of philanthropy, where power is performative and galas are mandatory.
Unbothered Constellations
Mini Film Festival Curator
In order shown
They Ain't Coming To Save Us
Eliminating Barriers, Creating New Norms. Limited series created to uplift, empower, and liberate Black Queer voices across the South.
Texas Heavy: Ridin’ for Power, Purpose & Progress
"In the heart of Fort Worth, Texas, the story begins with a poignant conversation with the Founder and Executive Director of DUNES Homeless Solutions, Brenda Washington. She recounts the devastating personal loss that drove her to create the city's sole housing organization specifically catering to the unique needs of Black LGBTQ communities in Southern metroplexes. Her tale of isolation and perseverance sets the stage for an exploration of resilience and unity in an often unwelcoming landscape.
The narrative then shifts to Oil Country USA: Odessa & Midland, Texas. Here, the film captures glimpses of a tightly-knit community working in unison. Through intimate interviews with community pillars like Father Rick Lopez, an openly gay Episcopalian chaplain, and Bryan Wilson, the founder and director of the region's only LGBTQ youth center, the documentary reveals the connective tissue that forms their strong, organic foundation.
Despite the conservative climate and restrictive legislation that typify West Texas, these rural communities have discovered innovative ways to remain connected and amplify their limited resources. The film illuminates the extraordinary power of collaboration, showcasing how innovation can focus resource decentralization and foster sustainability.
"Liberation through Collaboration" serves as a blueprint for communities across the South, demonstrating how unity and cooperative effort can overcome adversity and pave the way for a legacy of freedom and abundance."
Legacy
Legacy is an experimental documentary short film filling the gaps
in Black Trans storytelling history and identifying the immensely
powerful legacy of storytelling that Black Trans community has nurtured and inherited. This production also weaves footage produced by Comfrey Films for The Embodiment Institute's 2022 Black TGNCI Healing Retreat in North Carolina.
Abandon
Abandon is a hybrid short film that travels between North Carolina and Jamaica, following Gender-Free filmmaker and medicine maker, Joie Lou Shakur, as they return home to Jamaica to heal the childhood wound of being abandoned at a local bus stop 23 years earlier. Through the embodied healing practices of our protagonist and the film’s entire cast and crew, this film explores two primary questions: How can marginalized communities heal childhood trauma in order to access more connection and intimacy as adults? How can the filmmaking process be used to increase access to healing in its village of filmmakers and storytellers?
It Takes A Village
It Takes A Village is the behind the scenes rendition of the Abandon film as it documents and explores the practices and journey of weaving healing justice throughout the filmmaking process.
Under False Colors
Under False Colors is a narrative short film about the life of Frances Thompson, a Black trans woman who survived the Memphis Massacre of 1866 and one of the first Black women to testify before the U.S Congressional Committee and to speak on congressional record against sexual violence that her and the women of the Gayoso Bayou Inn experienced. In Reconstruction Era Memphis, Frances and Lucy, two Black women, redefine the words freedom and community by holding and healing one another in the aftermath of this historic massacre.
Unbothered Constellations is a celebration of trans vision, resistance, and unapologetic storytelling. In a region often misrepresented or overlooked, trans filmmakers from Texas and the broader South are reclaiming the narrative, one frame at a time. This mini-film festival showcases the bold, nuanced, and genre-defying work of artists who are not just surviving but thriving, creating, and reshaping the cinematic landscape. These films bear witness to the complexities of trans life in the South, its joy, rage, love, and contradictions. Allow the films to bring Texas and the South to you; just press play. This is Unbothered Constellations, where the South speaks back—and trans voices lead the conversation.