To exist as a transgender person is to be in a perpetual state of proving yourself. To family, to friends, to doctors, to religious authorities, and often to yourself. In a society where the genitals determine how people are treated, what jobs are available, what marriages are legally sanctioned, and how they are expected to behave, undermining the strict system set before them is an inherently dangerous task. This is true now, and it was true in 1808 when Ferdinand Andreas Bruce was born.

The Wings (1916) is now known as one of the first films to explore queer themes, a reading that is encouraged by the fact that many of the people involved in creating the film were queer. This film’s director was a connecting cord between two of the most well-remembered figures of Swedish cinema, Nils Asther and Greta Garbo. Both of whom were also queer. In many ways, this man shaped the face of queer cinema from its very beginnings. Now it is time to explore the history and learn about Mauritz Stiller.