Todd Haynes

Pas­sion­ate about visu­als arts ever since he was young, he grad­u­at­ed from Brown Uni­ver­si­ty with a B.A. in art and semi­otics. In 1987, he direct­ed the short film Super­star: The Karen Car­pen­ter Sto­ry using Bar­bie dolls. Since then, he kept address­ing the issues of gen­der and iden­ti­ty. His first fea­ture film Poi­son, inspired by the writ­ings of Jean Genet, was released in 1991 and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sun­dance. May Decem­ber, his ninth fic­tion film, was pre­sent­ed in com­pe­ti­tion at the last Cannes Film Festival.