Magical and Divinely Queer

Georden West (left) provides direction on the set of Patron Saint, an experimental short that won a 2019 Student Academy Award

Queer filmmaker and installation artist Georden West won a gold in the Student Academy Awards competition for Patron Saint, a seven-minute experimental film featuring otherworldly costumes by recent RISD grad Jamall Osterholm 17 AP.

The film, which West completed as a grad student at Emerson College in Boston, presents religion and history as queer deities wearing Osterholm’s wild designs.

Still from the film Patron Saint, costumes by Jamall Osterholm 17 AP

“Jamall... is making groundbreaking designs that elevate bodies and identities....”

Award-winning filmmaker Georden West

“I’m incredibly grateful to have worked with Jamall, who is making groundbreaking designs that elevate bodies and identities with an innovation that inspired and built a world for Patron Saint to exist in,” says West. “I am excited to showcase queer media that is magical and experimental.”

West accepted a Student Academy Award wearing apparel by Jamall Osterholm 17 AP
West accepted their Student Academy Award wearing—what else?—an Olsterholm design.

Since graduating from RISD two years ago, Osterholm has shown his collections at New York Fashion Week and New England Styleweek, and in early 2019 competed on the Bravo TV reality show Project Runway.

He thinks of his work as “under the scope of futurism/science fiction” and points out that “queer people of color have been creating our culture forever without being acknowledged or credited.


—Simone Solondz

October 30, 2019