As Florida's violent legislation dominates headlines, LGBTQ2S+ communities are also on the frontlines of accelerating climate change. Can't Stop Change: Queer Climate Stories from the Florida Frontlines weaves interviews with 15 LGBTQ2S+ artists, organizers, and educators across Florida (and the new Florida diaspora) into an intersectional climate justice narrative.
Amidst so much unknown, Can't Stop Change shares an emergent hope: Moments of disaster create opportunities for immense transformation, where what once seemed impossible becomes possible. As we look towards the next hurricane season and next legislative cycle, how can we work with the changes to come to shape the futures we want?
*This film is not yet rated. It contains some brief nudity (non-sexual), and occasional adult language. It also contains hurricane footage and discussion of state violence that may be distressing to some viewers. Recommended for adults or young adult minors with permission. Please note that specifics of Florida legislation mentioned in the film may have changed since filming.*
Watch the Trailer:
Watch &
Organize
The main goal of Can’t Stop Change is to create an organizing tool for fostering conversations about queer climate justice strategy for navigating rising legislative attacks against trans, queer, immigrant, and racialized communities and the lands we call home. We hope to help initiate and deepen proactive strategies for community resilience to storms and state violence alike.
Screenings can be booked through our Google form. Screening fees are waived for groups in Florida. For groups outside of Florida, screenings are available using a sliding scale fee structure based on organization budget and expected audience size. No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Download the Resource Guide for tips on organizing a screening, pre-screening introduction, suggested discussion questions, and resources for organizers and educators.
Speaker & Media Requests
Can't Stop Change production team members and film collaborators are available for speaking opportunities, including Q&A events, panel discussions, and media interviews. To discuss, send an email to queerecoproject@gmail.com. Members of the press are also invited to consult our Digital Press Kit.
Meet the Team
Co-Directors
Can't Stop Change is co-directed by Vanessa Raditz, Natalia Villarán-Quiñones,
Yarrow Koning, Shoog McDaniel, and Jess Martínez.
All Co-Directors played multiple roles on the production team.
Vanessa Raditz
Co-Director, Producer, Editor, Cinematography
Vanessa (they/them) is a queer ecojustice educator and storyteller dedicated to community healing, opening access to land and resources, and fostering a thriving local economy based on human and ecological resilience. Along with Deseree Fontenot, Vanessa was a founding member of the Queer Ecojustice Project in Spring 2016, educating and organizing at the intersection of ecological justice and queer liberation. They are now the Director of the in-production collaborative documentary project Fire & Flood: Queer Resilience in the era of Climate Change, which is part of their doctoral work in Critical Studies in Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. The project addresses the contextual vulnerability of multiply-marginalized queer, trans, and two-spirit communities to climate change disasters, as well as the lessons for the climate justice movement that comes from these communities' resilience and histories of struggle for liberation.
Natalia Villarán-Quiñones
Co-Director, Lead Interviewer, Organizer
Natalia (ella/she/us) is a Queer and Femme Afro-Caribbean, an intersectional ecofeminist, youth organizer, and artist based in Puerto Rico. She believes in the transformative and healing power of the community and how important it is to preserve oral and written stories and traditions. As the community organizer for Queers4ClimateJustice, Natalia has opened new conversations with climate justice organizers in PR about inclusion of LGBTQ+ issues, organized a Q4CJ Youth Roundtable for Pride month in 2022, coordinated a cohort of 12 queer and trans organizers from PR to attend the 2023 Creating Change conference in San Francisco, 2024 in New Orleans and 2025 in Las Vegas. She has expanded the reach and relationships of the instagram account @queers4climatejustice. She is also a poet, celebrating her first book: Desamor y Memorias de una Virgo (The Heartbreak and Memories of a Virgo, 2022).
Yarrow Koning
Co-Director, Impact Campaign, Editor, Associate Producer
Yarrow (they/them) is a creative professional skilled in community development, environmental education, and wildlife ecology with over a decade of experience in the non-profit sector. Yarrow is passionate about wildlife ecology, conservation, social justice, food justice, and creating accessible community spaces. Yarrow recently graduated with a Master's of Environmental Education program at Florida Atlantic University and has worked for the past two years as an environmental educator at multiple sites in Florida. Yarrow is connected with queer and trans organizations across the state of Florida that are fighting against the anti-woke policies of the governor and state legislature, including the Florida Coalition for Transgender Liberation.
Shoog McDaniel
Co-Director, Cinematography, Illustrations
Shoog (they/them) is a southern, queer, non-binary, fat photographer and artist living in Gainesville, Florida. They have been taking photos since high school, when a friend dumpster dove 200 disposable cameras from behind a Walgreens. They became obsessed, and began documenting everything. They now shoot with a canon 6D, and have yet to take a break from capturing intimate moments and beautiful people in everyday life. Shoog’s work is about highlighting bodies and lives that are often overlooked by popular society. They enjoy photographing fat bodies, trans bodies, and queer bodies. People`with gap-toothed smiles and missing buttons. They strive to connect the viewer of each photo to beauty within themselves, through understanding the brilliancy of diversity, by showing them that there are many ways to be beautiful. Shoog also focuses their lens on the wildlife that Florida has to offer, and strives to expose the majestic nature of Florida's fresh water springs that hold them up when thin.cis.het.patriarchy gets them down.
Jess Martínez
Co-Director, Audio Technician, Translations, Access Liaison
Jess (they/them) is a queer Latinx, working-class, femme raised in Georgia and committed to struggles for justice in the South. They are a co-founder of the Athens Housing Advocacy Team, a grassroots effort to organize tenants and allies to fight for the right to affordable, healthy, dignified, stable housing, and they are also an organizer with Dignidad Inmigrante en Athens and the Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition. Jess is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the University of Georgia. As a production assistant with Fire & Flood, Jess has been working on planning and logistics for new interviews, including translations, audio recording, and conducting Spanish language interviews.
Production Team Members
Elias Hamza Acevedo, Editor
Hamza (he/him) is an Afro-Latine filmmaker and human rights activist, passionate about storytelling and visual artistry. After receiving a Bachelors degree in Film and Media arts at the University of Tampa (UT), Hamza pursued a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film at City College of New York (CCNY). With over 10 years of experience, E.H.'s work has a wide range from independent short and feature films, to commercial productions, news reporting, and music videos. His films have received numerous awards and accolades, such as international awards from Bahrain and various U.S. national film festivals, for its powerful storytelling and compelling visual aesthetics. Elias Hamza continues to push the boundaries of storytelling through his unique perspective currently at NowThis Media. He is also known for his dedication to promoting representation in the film and media industry. He's an advocate for increasing the visibility of underrepresented voices, and uses his craft to shed light on important social issues.
V Starks, Associate Producer & Interviewer
V (he/they) is a cultural worker, interdisciplinary artist, and creative facilitator committed to organizing toward a more liberated South. Originally from Jacksonville, FL and currently based in Atlanta, GA, he is interested in using cultural work to “make the revolution irresistible” (Toni Cade Bambara). As an interdisciplinary artist working primarily with film, writing, and zines, V loves exploring the uses of art as a tool for disrupting dominant narratives, documenting living community histories, and exploring the nuanced relationships between race, class, gender, and sexuality. A storyteller at heart, they have a deep interest in community archiving and memory work. He currently serves as the documentarian for the Southern Memory Workers Collaborative, which is crafting an implementation plan to support the growth of community archive efforts across the South focused on social movement memory and collective self-governance practices. V is a graduate of the University of Central Florida Film BFA and Africana Studies programs. He is a prospective MLIS student and aspiring librarian / archivist.
DeAllen Glenn, Cinematography
Whether it be photography, installations, filmmaking, poetry, and more, DeAllen Glenn (he/him) is a multidimensional artist whose work focuses on the many facets of mental health, seemingly opposing dichotomies, and the human experience. From depression and suicide to nature vs modernity and what it means to be human; Glenn attempts to take his understanding (or lack there of) of existence and turn them into experimental and raw expressions that he presents to the audience. The exploration and vulnerability of his own mental health have been his most explored subject
matter. The sculpture/painting I Never Stopped Dying (2019) is a visually jarring display of his battle and perseverance with suicidal ideation. While his poetry book The Blackest of Black Cats (2023) is a raw and vulnerable insight of his experience during covid that coincided with the revelations of his inner turmoil and trauma that can only occur during the introspection of
isolation. Born in 1996, in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, DeAllen Glenn studied Psychology and Sociology at the University of North Florida from 2014 to 2017 before studying Film Production at the University of Central Florida from 2018 to 2021. He resides in Jacksonville Florida, where he most recently presented work in 2024 at the Jacksonville Photo Festival in collaboration with many photographers curated and organized by the renowned photographer Malcom Jackson.
Gallery
Donate
Can't Stop Change is a grassroots project created entirely by LGBTQ+ people. We're fundraising to cover our impact campaign expenses. Your donations help us keep the film free for groups in Florida and allow us to place 50% of all screening fees into an ongoing mutual aid fund for film collaborators. This mutual aid fund has already supported film collaborators through financial hardship, financed disaster preparedness events, paid for recovery supplies after Hurricanes Ian, Helene, and Milton, and commissioned a community memorial for climate justice activist Tortuguita.
