Filmmaker Statement

My name is Halo Starling (they/he), and I am a trans and queer artist and filmmaker. In my work, I center the queer and trans experience from my own perspective, and from the identities that intersect with my own. "PONY" is based on my own experience, as a gender-confused millennial child growing up in '90s and '00s in a thoroughly-haunted house. "PONY" also weaves in the larger story of suicides and homicides experienced by LGBTQ+ children and preteens in the US, which affect my community everyday. The rate of LGBTQ+ suicides is disturbingly high among children and youth. LGBTQ+ youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2009). Among nonbinary youth, 41.8% of respondents stated that they had attempted suicide at some point in their lives. Through the creation of "PONY," I wish to bring visibility to at-risk LGBTQ+ teens.