SUITED

A film by Jason Benjamin

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING SCHEDULE (PREMIERE) Monday, January 25th at 9:00 PM @ TEMPLE THEATRE, PARK CITY (P&I SCREENING) Tuesday, January 26th at 12:00PM @ HOLIDAY VILLAGE CINEMA 2 Wednesday, January 27th at 8:30 AM @ EGYPTIAN THEATER, PARK CITY Thursday, January 28th at 10:00 PM @ HOLIDAY VILLAGE CINEMA 4, PARK CITY Friday, January 29th at 2:30 PM @ PROSPECTOR SQUARE THEATER, PARK CITY Saturday, January 30th at 3:00 PM @ BROADWAY CENTRE CINEMA 6, SALT LAKE CITY

Running Time: 78 minutes

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Press Contact Press Contact HBO Documentary Films FRANK PR Lana Iny/Veronica Van Pelt Clare Anne Darragh/Stephanie Davidson Office: 212.512.1462 Office: 646.861.0843 Lana cell: 917.992.4794 Clare Anne cell: 917.364.9438 Veronica cell: (323) 326-6931 Stephanie cell: 201.704.1382 Lana.iny@hbo.com [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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SUITED A film by Jason Benjamin

SYNOPSIS

SUITED follows its subjects—clients seeking a personalized experience—into the minimalist office space of Bindle & Keep, a bespoke tailoring company based in Brooklyn that caters to a diverse LGBTQ community and looks beyond the gender binary. Clothier duo Rae and Daniel take a holistic approach to their work, considering each client’s personal narrative, which becomes inextricable from the creation of the perfect custom-made suit. From Derek’s emotional journey as he prepares for his wedding, to Everett, a law student in a conservative environment, or Mel, who simply wants to look good for their 40th birthday party—the need for well-fitting garments represents deeper meaning around identity, empowerment, and feeling good.

Going deeper than fine fabrics and silk linings, SUITED takes a modern, evolved look at gender through the conduit of clothing and elucidates the private and emotional experience surrounding it. With heart and optimism, the film documents a cultural shift that is creating a new demand—and response—for each person’s right to go out into the world with confidence.

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SUITED A film by Jason Benjamin

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

SUITED began on November 27, 2013. That was the day I opened the New York Times and read an article called “The Masculine Mystique” by John Leland. I tend to read a lot of news, but this particular story resonated with me in an unusually powerful way. The article talked about a bespoke tailoring company named Bindle and Keep, their gender non-conforming clients and the complex relationship that clothing can have for people as they look for ways to outwardly express their gender. The suit making process was highly personal and often part of an important journey. The moment when a client tried on a finished suit sounded beautiful, like it was loaded with emotional weight and self realization. The article stayed with me. It was touching for me to think about and it inspired me to make a documentary.

When the article in the Times was published I had been the boom operator on the HBO series GIRLS for four seasons. During that time, I developed a friendship with executive producers Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner. I mentioned the idea to them in an informal way and suggested a documentary. They were immediately interested and encouraged me to contact Bindle & Keep to see if we could put a project together. I emailed Rae Tutera, one of the people quoted in the article who worked for Bindle & Keep and began to get a sense for the material and how we might craft a story. Rae was incredibly patient and acted as my guide into the world of gender.

SUITED is a story about people, gender and fashion—and one clothing company seeking to redefine those labels.

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SUITED A film by Jason Benjamin

CREW BIOGRAPHIES

Jason Benjamin (Director/Producer) was born in New York City and educated at The City University of New York. He received a BA in Sculpture and an MFA in Documentary film. He worked as a welder for 11 years and then became a boom operator. For the past 14 years, he has quietly observed a wide-ranging group of directors, actors and showrunners transform their stories from script to screen. SUITED is his directorial debut.

Lena Dunham (Producer) is a writer, director and the creator and star of Girls on HBO. In 2010, she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for her feature Tiny Furniture, which she also starred in and directed. In 2014, she and Jenni Konner co-founded A Casual Romance Productions. She and Jenni are also the co-founders of LennyLetter.com, which launched this fall. Her book of personal essays, Not That Kind of Girl, was published in September 2014, and she is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

Jenni Konner (Producer) is a writer, director, and executive producer of Girls on HBO. She began her career as a writer on Judd Apatow's celebrated television series, Undeclared. In 2014, she and Lena Dunham co-founded A Casual Romance Productions. She and Lena are also the co-founders of LennyLetter.com, which launched this fall.

Ericka Naegle (Producer) runs A Casual Romance Productions, having previously worked with Lena and Jenni as a producer on Girls. It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise, her first documentary and A Casual Romance's first production, debuted at Sundance in 2014.

Stacey Reiss (Producer) is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker who has written, directed and produced documentaries and long form programs for HBO, NBC, WNET and CNBC. Her films include Suited (Sundance Film Festival 2016), It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise (Sundance 2015) The Diplomat (Tribeca Film Festival 2015), and I Knew It Was You (Sundance 2009): all were acquired by HBO. She is also producing The Eagle Huntress, which will also premiere at Sundance in 2016.

Carly Hugo (Producer) produces both narratives and documentaries with her NYC-based company, Loveless. Her recent films include HBO documentaries Suited (Sundance ’16) and Everything is Copy (New York Film Festival '15), Five Nights in Maine (Toronto '15), Mother of George (Sundance '13), Bachelorette (Sundance '12), HBO documentary Hot Coffee (Sundance '11), and Vera Farmiga's Higher Ground (Sundance '11). Carly was the executive producer of Share, a short film that won First Prize in the Cinéfondation section of Cannes ’15.

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CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Daniel Friedman: Suffering from the effects of accidental lead poisoning, Daniel Friedman appropriated skills from his former architecture career to develop a unique method of suit design. His company would eventually support people of all genders and gender identities whose needs were not being met by conventional tailors. Working hard to improve the lives of his clientele, Daniel improved his own.

Rae Tutera is a jack-of-all-trades from New York. After navigating the cis/straight custom menswear landscape in 2010 as a transmasculine person, Rae felt there was a unique need for a trans/queer-identified clothier. In 2012, Rae asked Daniel Friedman for an apprenticeship at Bindle & Keep. In 2015, Rae opened a general store in Brooklyn called Willoughby General. Rae would like to be referred to as Rae whenever possible, thereby avoiding gendered pronouns. If necessary, please use “they/their” to refer to Rae.

Derek Matteson is a registered nurse in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a transgender man who transitioned from female to male about a decade ago. The film follows Derek as Bindle & Keep makes a suit for his upcoming wedding, he and his fiancée visit his rural Pennsylvania hometown, and he has his remaining female reproductive organs surgically removed.

Everett Arthur is a transman and cellist currently attending law school in Atlanta, Georgia. In need of suits for upcoming job interviews, Everett approaches Bindle & Keep looking to buy a few custom suits. Everett's gender identity proves to be a hurdle when trying to secure a legal internship in the South.

Melissa “Mel” Plaut is a gender nonconforming cab driver, urban planning graduate student and writer in Brooklyn, New York. As Bindle & Keep makes a custom suit for her 40th birthday party, she discusses her belief that gender exists as a spectrum rather than a binary.

Grace Dunham is a writer and activist from New York City. Grace comes to Bindle & Keep for a winter suit she can “run around in” and wear to professional engagements and events. Grace identifies as gender-nonconforming, i.e. she does not feel that either "male" or "female" is an accurate description of who she is and the ways in which that changes. Grace primarily uses the pronoun "she" but is also comfortable with "they." Either works.

Aidan Star Jones is a transgender teenage boy whose Bar Mitzvah is approaching. His grandmother contacts Bindle & Keep after their family is unable to find him a suit that fits his needs in their hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

Dr. Jillian T. Weiss is an attorney and professor in New York who focuses on transgender issues in the workplace. She is a transgender woman who approaches Bindle & Keep for suits that will make her look and feel her best as she argues an important discrimination case in federal court.

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A WORD ABOUT TERMINOLOGY For the sake of clarity, we have attempted in these press notes to be as direct as possible about how each of the film’s subjects identifies today.

For those who do not identify strictly with the gender they were assigned at birth, identity can be a process; preferences about gender pronouns shift, expressions of gender evolve, how one relates to gender - and whether they relate at all to a male-female gender binary - can change.

The language around gender is also evolving. We have found that the best approach is to ask, to follow people's leads, and to always affirm self-determination and people's agency with regard to their identity. For us, this means using the language our film's subjects use to describe themselves.

It means never assuming that someone uses "he" or "she" pronouns and respecting the pronouns that people tell us they prefer. Some people choose to stick with male and female pronouns; others feel that the gender neutral, singular "they" pronoun is the best expression of their identity. Others, still, opt for pronouns such as zi, zir, and hir. Some people feel best only being referred to by their name.

It means making space for identities, and the way we talk about them, to grow and change.

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FILM CREDITS

HBO DOCUMENTARY FILMS Presents

SUITED

Directed by JASON BENJAMIN

Produced by LENA DUNHAM JENNI KONNER

Produced by ERICKA NAEGLE STACEY REISS

Produced by CARLY HUGO JASON BENJAMIN

For HBO Documentary Films Executive Producer SHEILA NEVINS

For HBO Documentary Films Senior Producer SARA BERNSTEIN

Director of Photography BOB RICHMAN

Edited by M. WATANABE MILMORE

For HBO Documentary Films Supervising Editor GEOF BARTZ

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Original Music by OWEN PALLETT

Music Supervisors MANISH RAVAL JONATHAN LEAHY TOM WOLFE

Motion Graphic Sequences by GRAND JETÉ

Featuring RAE TUTERA DANIEL FRIEDMAN DEREK MATTESON EVERETT ARTHUR MELISSA PLAUT AIDAN STAR JONES GRACE DUNHAM DR. JILLIAN T. WEISS

WILLIAM BARTER FRANKIE EDWARDS DR. JUDITH SHEPARD GOMEZ TIM HOLBROOK BOB “PAPA” JONES MIMI LESTER JOANNA MATTESON ERMA MATTESON DANIEL MATTESON DEBRA MATTESON

Associate Producer ALEXANDRA PITZ

Sound Mixer AUSTIN PLOCHER

Still Photographer JOJO WHILDEN

Assistant Editors ALEX PIRRONE SEAN ENGVOLD

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Additional Cinematography ANDREW DUNN NADIA HALLGREN JONATHAN FURMANSKI YARON ORBACH CLAUDIA RASCHKE MIA BARKER PETER CHELKOWSKI

Assistant Camera OLIVIA KIMMEL JEFFREY GRIECCI REBECCA ARNDT MITCH BLUMMER MARIAM DWEDAR SEAN ENGVOLD RACHEL FEDORKVA MATT HARDING MATT HENDERSON

Additional Sound Mixers JON MOORE ROBERT SYLVAIN

Media Manager JULIAN FELLER-COHEN

Second Unit Electrics ALAN HOSTETTER KAYA DILLON SAM HAITAM ROSTOM

Production Assistants RACHEL LANG NATALIE BERKUS JULIE DOYLE NORA SILVER LAUREN SINCLAIR THOMAS TRINH MEREDITH FINCH THOMAS BELL

Assistants to Lena Dunham LIZ WATSON

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Assistant to Jenni Konner CHRISTINA BROSMAN

Interns EMMA BLACKWOOD, HANNAH JANE COHEN, REGINA COYLE, SUMMER ELBARDISSY, ANNA HOTTER, FARAH KABIR, STEPHANIE KELLY, THOMAS RIVERA MONTES, JAMIE PAWLIK, SAMANTHA PITZ, CLAYTON WEIRICK

Post Production Manager ROBERT FORLENZA

Media Manager JERRY HEER

Graphics Creative Director HOWARD NOURMAND

Motion Graphic Producer LOGAN HUFFORD

Senior Animator IAN ROY

Animators STEPHANIE ZAVALETA MELINDA SALVATERA

Sound Editor and Re-Recording Artist CHRIS BERTOLOTTI Foley Recorded at STEPPING STONE FOLEY STUDIO Music Performed by OWEN PALLETT SAM RAY SEAN MERCER SHAHZAD ISMAILY WARREN HILDEBRAND CLARICE JENSEN DANIEL WINDSOR

Music Recorded by SEAN MERCER WOLF STREAM MEDIA STUDIOS, BALTIMORE, MD KABIR HERMON MAGIC SHOP, NEW YORK, NY

Digital Intermediate provided by BOX STUDIOS 10

Colorist MARCY ROBINSON Assistant Colorist MARIKA LITZ Feature Finishing Producer HILARY JACOBS DI Editor SCOTT FRACE

Production Legal Services FRANKFURT KURNIT KLEIN & SELZ, P.C. VICTORIA COOK SASHA LEVITES

Production Accountant SARINA NEER

Songs

“Who Knows” Written by Samantha Barbera and Nicholas Ruth Performed by BEGINNERS By arrangement with All Media Music Group, Inc., Kobalt Music Publishing America, Inc., and SONGS Music Publishing

"Desde aquí (milonga)” Written by Sonia Possetti Performed by Emory University Tango Ensemble Courtesy of Emory University

"Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major" Written by Johann Sebastian Bach Performed by Clarice Jensen

“At Last” Written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren Performed by Daniela Gesundheit and Clarice Jensen

"Conqueror" Written by Aurora Aksnes, Odd Skaalnes, Geir Luedy and Magnus Skylstad Performed by AURORA Courtesy of Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC

Archival material provided by the film’s subjects. Featuring Bindle & Keep website photography by Alex Troesch

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Special Thanks DERRICK ABLEMAN ADAM BASHEER SUSAN BENAROYA SABRINA TURIN-BENJAMIN JERRY BERGER AMBER BILLEY BARBARA CAVER SUSAN CLARK AUTUMN DE WILDE JUANITA ERB DR. YVONNE GOMEZ-CARRION ANDREW HEFTER MARC H. SIMON KELLY LAWMAN MIA LIDOFSKY JOY LUBRANO ED MOSELEY JEREMY NEWMARK MATT PARKER ALEX TROESCH BROOKLYN MUSEUM DAPPERQ EMORY UNIVERSITY THE SHAVE BARBERSHOP

A Casual Romance Production

In Association With LOVELESS

Copyright © 2016 Home Box Office, Inc. All rights reserved. First publication of this motion picture (sound recording and film): United States of America 2016. Home Box Office, Inc. is the owner of the copyright in this motion picture. This motion picture is protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication, copying or use of all or part of this motion picture may result in civil liability and/or criminal prosecution in accordance with applicable laws.

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