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Kimberly Pierce is a skillful film director who is widely recognized for her successful independent film Boys Don’t Cry released in 1999. The film is based on the life of a transgender individual Brandon Teena who passes off as a man to pursue her love interest who is a woman. The film was a low budget film but garnered attention through word of mouth. Kimberly Pierce has established herself as a director who explores concepts of gender, relationships of lesbians, homosexuals, and transgender experiences. This is represented through her most notable role as director of Boys Don’t Cry feature film and the television drama The L word. The L word title of the show could be referred to as love, liberal, lesbian or a variety of other words. The shows display the life of lesbian, transgender, and bisexual relationships in the Los Angeles area of West Hollywood.
In reference to the article Author/Auteur, women’s cinemas are characterized by its project to work with or against narrative by shifting the gaze and exploring gender relations. Kimberly Pierce’s film Boys Don’t Cry challenged conventional films which focus on the romance between a man and a woman. In Boys Don’t Cry, Brandon Teena struggled with her identity and her emotions. She fell in love with a woman and was willing to personify a male identity to pursue her. She understood that if she pursued her with her real identity as a woman she might be ridiculed or her life may be in danger. Once it’s discovered that Brandon is a female, she is violently raped and murdered. Brandon Teena embodies a transgender individual who happens to fall in love with another woman. She was discriminated by two convicts who took her life. The brutal murder and rape scenes create anger towards the two male convicts. The two men represent an impediment to her happiness and are images of male intrusion.



Kimberly Pierce success of Boys’s Don’t Cry is a personal reflection of her dedication and diligent work as a film maker. The film began as a project for her thesis graduate degree at Columbia University. She read about the story in an article and the details of the story drove her to do further research on the story. She traveled to Fall City, Nebraska to perform research and attended the trial of the two homicide suspects. She was awarded a Princess Grace Award and received a grant at Columbia University. Her grant and involvement with the Sundance Film festival helped her to develop her film project into a feature film.
Kimberly Pierce is an example of an avant guarde film director who challenged conventional films by presenting a film which explored the life and ordeal of a transgender individual. In reference to the article, “Author/Auteur, the author uses the term “Gynocriticism” to describe the process of presenting the voices of the silenced. Pierce’s work presents the lives and displays appreciative interpretations of women’s sexual experiences and desires.