Currently in Post-Production – Contact ndyfilms@gmail.com
At a time when federal policies are again restricting transgender military service and changing the care available to transgender veterans, Moving Like Pond Water asks whose freedom is protected and whose service is remembered. Through LGBTQIA+ veterans’ stories, the film connects today’s decisions to a longer history of concealment, exclusion, and service.
Moving Like Pond Water aims to widen public understanding of who serves and challenge the assumption that LGBTQIA+ identity and military service are at odds. Through LGBTQIA+ veterans’ stories, the film brings experiences too often left out of the public record into view. Poetry, performance, and visual art reveal how these veterans understand service, identity, and life after the military in their own terms.
IDA is our Fiscal Sponsor which means your contribution will get a receipt for your tax records! Contributions can be made here.
For more information about film participants, filmmakers and budget, please download deck.
Director’s Note
I feel a profound responsibility to honor the trust the veterans participaing in my film have placed in me. I want the film to make room for each person’s complexity, and for their stories to be heard in their own voices.
Moving Like Pond Water began R&D in 2023 with a broader question about veterans, creativity, and the return from military service. As relationships deepened and the film took shape, its true center became clear: LGBTQIA+ veterans whose creative practices give form to experiences of service, identity, belonging, and return.
Cheryl Bookout, 2026