Turning the Lens—and the Mirror—on Queer Identity

Filmmaker Michael Hyman’s new LGBTQIA+ video series Reflections is both intimate and radical in its simplicity. The 16mm project, produced under Hyman’s queer arts organization Out on Fire Media, reimagines Andy Warhol’s iconic Screen Tests for a contemporary audience: one living in a world of selfies, filters, and fleeting viral fame. Yet where Warhol’s subjects merely sat before a static camera, Hyman adds the twist of a mirror. Each short film features a subject seated alone for four silent minutes, facing their own reflection. What unfolds is an unfiltered study of identity, beauty, and vulnerability; told through stillness rather than speech.

“I was more interested in how people see themselves, especially for an extended period of time,” Hyman explains. “Each subject was left completely alone, reacting only to themselves. That self-investment - how one responds to their own image - is what really fascinated me.”

Shot entirely in a single day, Reflections presents a diverse cross-section of the LGBTQIA+ community. Participants include transgender author and actress Marizol Leyva, out actor Jason Caceres and his partner Bryan, and Justin Jedlica, known for his public journey with body modification. Despite the brevity of each session, the emotional depth captured on film is staggering.

Jedlica recalls that his four minutes of silence transformed into something unexpectedly healing. “It became less about loathing and more about self-love,” he says. “It was reaffirming to look at myself and feel pride in who I am, despite years of pressure to conform.”

Leyva echoes that sentiment, describing the process as “raw and uncomfortable at first,” but ultimately empowering. “As the session went on, I began to see my scars, my smile, my softness, and my strength coexisting,” she shares. “That shift from self-consciousness to self-celebration was powerful to witness in real time.”

For Hyman, that shift is the beating heart of Reflections. As the camera rolls, silence becomes its own kind of dialogue. “In the silence, we tend to get louder in terms of self-expression,” he says. “Taking away the need to speak allowed each individual to relax. Within that quiet, they seemed to give themselves permission to explore their most vulnerable parts. Those parts need no words.”

Despite his minimalist direction, Hyman’s role as facilitator was crucial. He encouraged participants to abandon performance and simply exist. “I literally got out of their way,” he explains. “I told each subject they could make no mistakes and to simply be themselves. That gave them permission to go deeper.”

The project’s visual austerity - 16mm film, a static camera, and a single mirror - creates a timeless quality that harkens back to Warhol’s work while subverting it. Where Warhol sought to immortalize celebrity through stillness, Hyman uses the same technique to strip away persona entirely. Each subject’s gaze becomes a confrontation, not with fame or the viewer, but with themselves.

Hyman even placed himself before the camera, closing the loop between artist and subject. “If I was asking others to sit down and participate, it was only right that I do the same,” he says. “What surprised me most was how uncomfortable I was for four minutes straight with that damned mirror staring me back in the face. It was a rather brutal experiment but out of brutality often comes beauty.”

That balance between discomfort and beauty runs throughout Reflections. It’s an experiment in radical honesty at a time when queer visibility is often mediated through performance or activism. Yet for Hyman, the project is activism in itself. “Today, people are too easily lumped together with titles,” he says. “It’s much easier for those who wish to oppress us to do so in large numbers. But when each individual is seen, one at a time, we gain strength. Reflections is about amplifying those individual voices. Even in silence, our voices are getting louder.”

Out on Fire Media’s mission is “strength and activism through art”. It is fully realized through Reflections. The collective aims to create space for LGBTQIA+ artists to express their truths authentically, and this debut series does exactly that. By highlighting individuality within community, Reflections quietly asserts that identity is not a group construct, but a deeply personal journey.

Hyman also sees the project as a response to our hyper-connected, image-saturated culture. “Warhol predicted everyone would be world-famous for 15 minutes,” he notes. “Through social media, it seems those 15 minutes have dwindled. My hope is that through Reflections, both participants and viewers get a sense that the very essence of our being is uniquely our own.”

For actor Jason Caceres, who participated with his partner, the takeaway extends beyond the LGBTQIA+ experience. “I hope viewers see how uniquely different we all are, while also recognizing our shared humanity,” he says. “We all face the same experience of being human. It’s our reactions to that experience that define us.”

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