Hello WisCon,

My name is Rox Samer. I am a Screen Studies professor, feminist science fiction fan, filmmaker, and non-binary femme (among other things—note, also passionate cat parent). I have been attending WisCon since 2011. I often debut vids (OneOfGloriasJudys) at the Vid party, and in 2016 I served on the Tiptree Award jury that awarded Anna-Marie McLemore the TIptree for her incredible magical realist trans romance novel When the Moon Was Ours. One of my greatest WisCon joys (and life joys, truly) was getting to present Anna-Marie the award and play my Moon vid for all of you. Because of these amazing experiences, I am delighted to be returning to WisCon this year with a film crew to begin filming for my forthcoming documentary Tip/Alli, about the life, work, and influence of James Tiptree, Jr./Alice B. Sheldon.

Like many of you Tiptree’s work has been profoundly influential on my thinking of gender and sexuality, including my imagination of what could be and the many challenges we as humans face in getting there. In bringing my small, queer film crew to WisCon and making it our first stop, my goal is to center the story of feminist, queer, trans, and gender nonconforming science fiction fans. I envision Tip/Alli as being both Sheldon’s story and our own. However, I cannot do this without your help. In order to tell fans’ stories I need to interview fans! I would love the opportunity to speak to you about when you first discovered Tiptree’s work and learned of Sheldon’s story; your favorite James Tiptree, Jr. or Raccoona Sheldon story; and how the author’s work and life have inspired your own. If you are interested in interviewing for the film or helping out in another way (among other things, we need b-roll of convention activities), please do reach out and get in touch: rsamer@clarku.edu.

I am also aware that not everyone, Tiptree fan or no, is comfortable or excited to be on camera. The Tip/Alli crew will be very careful to not film anyone without their knowledge or consent. If you have any questions or concerns, please do find a member of team (we should all have black and white Tip/Alli t-shirts on most of the time) and let us know.

I encourage you to read more about the project online. Please follow us on Twitter (@TipAlli), and please shoot me an email before the convention if you’re curious!

Warmly,

Rox