With breathtaking emotional honesty, this tender, funny, and powerful portrait of transgender comedian Julia Scotti explores the unrelenting courage and humor it takes to be Julia. In the comedy boom of the 1980's Rick Scotti was a busy guy-appearing in clubs across the country, on bills with Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, when he came to the dawning realization that nothing felt right. At a time when the words gender dysphoria and gender reassignment surgery were rarely heard, Rick's true awakening at age forty-seven led to a new identity as Julia Scotti. And then everyone turned away-former wives, friends, family, comedy world buddies, and most painfully Julia was shut out from any contact with her children. Julia reinvented herself, spent a decade teaching, and then several years ago, stepped back on stage and began her journey back to the world she loves, and her children reached out to her after 15 years of silence. Shot over a period of five years, the film tracks Julia's triumphant comeback and the complex process of reuniting with her children, as comedy becomes the shared language of identity, healing, and joy.
Susan Sandler’s screenplays and teleplays include the Golden Globe nominated Crossing Delancey and Friends At Last, as well as projects for Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, TNT, and Columbia. Her work for the stage has been produced in New York, at major theatres across the country, and around the world. Her plays include Crossing Delancey, Under the Bed, The Renovation, The Moaner, If I Were A Train and The Find. Her short The Burial Society featured Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara in their final performance on NPR. Sandler’s work is published by Smith and Kraus, Vintage Press, and Samuel French. She is a full time professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Kanbar Institute of Film & Television, where she also guides the Fusion Film Festival. Julia Scotti: Funny That Way won Audience Choice at the Paley Center for New Media Doc Pitch, and is her directing debut.
