A loving and insightful portrait of two transgender siblings — Luca and Ren — and their parents, set in the changing social climate following the 2016 presidential election. LITTLE MISS WESTIE takes audiences behind the scenes as the family navigates puberty, school, dating and more as the children begin living in their authentic genders and Ren participates in the Lil’ Miss Westie Pageant.
Joy E. Reed has always championed the outsider in the projects they choose.
Their first big break in documentaries was as an assistant editor on BUCK (Sundance Audience Award 2011) and they were immediately hooked. Joy's feature editorial and directorial debut LITTLE MISS WESTIE (Best Documentary, Outshine Miami 2019, Special Jury Award, BendFilm 2019), premiered on PBS America Reframed in 2020.
A rural kid, Joy got their first job at 14, hauling cut trees for a disabled neighbor who made wreaths at Christmastime. That same year they earned $100– a fortune in the 80s!-- for writing computer code for a program that printed form letters. Joy has been alternating working with their back and their brain ever since; they have always lived beyond the binary.
When not in the edit room, they can be found strumming their baritone ukulele, or on the unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape people, working in the fields of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project in exchange for vegetables.
