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Patient No More

Patient No More is a documentary about the barriers LGBTQ+ women navigate across health care systems and how the never-ending hunt for affirming care affects their lives. Focused on centering the experiences of queer and female-identified people, the film features the voices of 17 LGBTQ+ women as both expert and patient.

  • Diana Fraser
    Director
    Indian Summer, Colorblind, Out North, The People's Protectors
  • Brennan Vance
    Director of Photography
    Memories of a Penitent Heart, Robert Klein Still Can't Stop His Leg, The Missing Sun
  • Valerie Mondor
    Editor
  • Jhernie Evangelista
    Assistant Editor
  • Terry Gray
    Audio Mixer
  • Carissa Knipe
    Illustrator
  • Hannah White
    Animator
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Genres:
    LGBTQ+, LGBT, Health, Human Rights, Medicine, Women, Female, Non-binary
  • Runtime:
    53 minutes 19 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 4, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Diana Fraser

Diana Fraser is a freelance producer whose work empowers social dialogue, creative collaboration, and marginalized communities. She believes listening to others tell their stories changes the game.

She has managed and designed advertising spots, documentaries, digital shorts, and broadcast programs. As a production manager at Twin Cities PBS her programs received over 15 Emmy nominations and garnered 7 wins.

Her freelance portfolio features a Princess Grace Honorarium Award film, two feature films, and several festival-recognized short films. She is a 2018 Minnesota State Arts Board grant recipient.

When not working Diana likes reading books, building Legos she knows she's going to step on someday, swing dancing, and eating churros.

Patient No More is her directorial debut.

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Director Statement

Queer women are not statistically “safe,” but there are medical spaces that have been crafted so that they can be treated with the same dignity as any other patient. “Patient No More” follows the stories of LGBTQ+ women navigating barriers across health care systems and how the never-ending hunt for affirming care affects their lives.

Historically, women have been used for experiments, committed to insane asylums, deprived of medical agency, misdiagnosed, and mistreated in Western medicine. As such, there remain long-term side effects to this long-festering malignancy; side effects that appear routinely in the care of queer women, whether lesbian, bisexual, trans, intersex, or other identifications.

Our team hopes this film will impact the way providers engage with their patients, and how the healthcare system trains new medical professionals. We hope our straight allies will stand beside us as we advocate for safety, dignity, and respect. But most of all, we hope our queer siblings feel empowered to hold their physicians to a higher standard. Queer women+ exist, and we deserve to be treated with dignity in all spaces, but particularly when we are at our most vulnerable.

This film is also a love letter to the doctor who made me feel safe when I came out in rural America. In 2011 the USA was a different world around LGBTQ+ rights; at that point, marriage equality had not yet passed. My deepest wish is that all queer+ folx know the peace of mind she granted me in that appointment. I could not have made this film without her, or the others working to ensure their patients feel safe and respected no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. May the next generation of doctors and medical professionals be led by your example.

Special thanks to our funders for standing by the Project’s primary mission in our storytelling venture: to ensure representation in front of and behind the camera. We did so by making three conscious choices: 1) to tell the story solely through queer+ and female-identified experts and testimonials; 2) by hiring a crew composed of at least 50% women, LGBTQ+ folx, and people of color; and 3) by collaborating with local crew and businesses to keep work in community, for community, by community.