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Born in Harrisburg, PA, she has stated publicly that she grew up in a trailer park and that this experience contributed to her fascination with the Brandon Teena story in low-income Falls City, Nebraska. Sources say that she graduated from a high school in Miami, Florida. She attended University of Chicago, earning a degree in English and Japanese Literature. She moved for several years to Kobe, Japan, working as a photographer and model. Upon returning to America, she enrolled at Columbia University, earning a masters degree in film. Initially, Peirce pursued a story about a female soldier in drag during the American Civil War for her thesis, but eventually nixed the plan due to a lack of personal connection with the story. After reading a Village Voice article about the rape and murder of Brandon Teena, a transman in Falls City, Nebraska, she became obsessed with the story, "falling in love" with Brandon. Frustrated with sensationalistic accounts of the story, she traveled to Falls City, befriended a court reporter, and thus attained court documents. The script and short film that would eventually be elongated into the feature film, Boys Don't Cry became her thesis. - Wikipedia.org |
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