Boys Don't Cry

Peirce's directorial debut tells the gut-wrenching true story of Teena Brandon, a Midwestern female who disguised herself as a man. Relocating to Falls City, Nebraska, from Lincoln, she managed to convince her newfound group of friends that she was Brandon Teena. The film treats these events with a painful objectivism, as Brandon's relationships with her friends John, Tom, Kate, Candace, and Lana unfold toward their inevitably horrific conclusion. A shining example of independent filmmaking at its most impassioned.