Connor Lee O'Keefe (he/him) is a nonfiction filmmaker, artist, and educator.
His journey in cinema began in his bedroom when he was just twelve years old. There, he made YouTube videos exploring his identity as a trans person. Years later, this led to his debut short film OUR TRANSITION, a personal documentary that tells the story of his own transition through the perspective of his parents. Since then, he has been using his camera and microphone to explore queerness in cinema, people, and the world. His works break narrative in order to defamiliarize reality, telling stories through perspectives that forgo society's preconceived notions on how to live. His films have played at festivals such as the Chicago International Film Festival, Nashville Film Festival, and Palm Springs ShortFest. His piece IMAGINE A BODY premiered in The New Yorker Documentary Series in June of 2022.
Outside of creating his own works, Connor is dedicated to community-building through film. He's served as a workshop facilitator at the Hennepin County Teen Tech Center, as a student mentor for DePaul University's Summer Programs, and as a Teaching Assistant in Immersive Video at Stanford University. In 2019, he gave a TEDx Talk on his experience making his own personal documentary and encouraged others to find empowerment through telling their own stories.
Connor's most recent short film, NO MORE LONGING, creates an immersive, musical portrait of a young Brazilian pop artist searching for his new voice seven years after moving to the United States and four years after starting testosterone.
Connor is currently working on several projects as an editor, in development for his next short film, and teaching at DePaul University.