From Frances Thompson to Zaire: Iman DuPree Centers Care Over Conflict of Black Trans Women in ‘Love Me in the Light’

“Love Me in the Light” is a film set “against the dystopian backdrop of the Covid-19 lockdown” where its two characters, Zaire (a Black trans woman) and Marcus (a bisexual Black man) “endure workplace woes, family nuances, and loneliness – leading them to connect on a dating app.”

I sat with DMV/Baltimore-based filmmaker Iman DuPree to discuss their upcoming Maryland-based project. DuPree, said they learned that after getting two degrees and working 10 years in project management, they “could touch more people” with their imagination than their time working in “the matrix.”

In the film, Zaire (played by Carmen Banks) and Marcus (played by Benji) “risk their health and friendships to share an evening where Black cinema, poetry no longer in print, and Black classical music (jazz) binds them in a night neither wants to end.”

“Love Me in the Light” is a project that DuPree hopes will counter anti-trans violence, as DuPree mentions, “isolation and alienation is the daily reality for many people of trans experience – because of a nation that rejects them.”

DuPree shared they fell in love with short-form literature long before cinema, citing Gloria Naylor, Toni Cade Bambara, Craig G. Harris, Melvin Dixon, and Susanna Kaysen for their stories. They referenced and the films 35 by Maggie Zhu, Walk for Me by Elegance Bratton, God is Good by C. Prinz and Jeremy Pope, and Acuitzeramo by Miguel Angel Caballero as inspirational movies that mirror the themes they wish to explore in cinema.

DuPree’s vision is clear in what they wanted to portray and discuss.

“‘Love Me in the Light’ places a mirror on the forsaken paths our community condemns trans folk to. But the narrative ultimately aims to celebrate romantic love for Black trans women so that violence is not the sole connection that people have to trans people or their experiences.”

The project also touches on self-doubt, chosen family, and the feasibility of love under the gaze of disapproving eyes and uncertainty.

When it comes to finding the balance between storytelling and advocacy, DuPree said that “everything’s connected and that for them, ‘storytelling dwells within the circumstances my characters find themselves in. The advocacy thrives in my characters’ choices or responses to those circumstances.’”

DuPree uses care in their storytelling, which was guided by two rules in building out the film: “Zaire would not face physical violence, and when the time came, she would not do the ‘work’ for Marcus.”

They layered the complexity of the story with elements they hadn’t seen before: “(1) a Black trans woman as a protagonist and love interest of (2) a Black bisexual man.”

DuPree also pulled from history to create parallels for Love Me in the Light.

“There was a Maryland-raised slave named Frances Thompson born in 1840,” they shared. “Despite testifying before Congress on the 1866 Memphis Riots, she was institutionalized by the very system she testified within – because she was a Black trans woman. The 2025 average life expectancy of Black trans women is 36 years old – the same age Frances was when she died in 1876. Nothing has changed in 150 years. Who outside of the trans community stands up for people of trans experience?”

DuPree shared that they “imbued Zaire’s journey with circumstances that could mirror the behavior of cisgender folks in our community. Not for them to see Zaire’s humanity – she needs not to prove she’s human to anyone. Rather, so that cisgender people can see their own.”

They spoke on the vulnerability and barenakedness required to not only write such a story, but also strip away ego and ask for help, enlisting the support of cinema lovers and allies of the TLGBQ+ community to help finish funding Love Me in the Light.

The film premieres to the world on November 20, 2025, at www.lmitl.org, free of charge.

Support and contact:

Support Black indie cinema here.

Follow “Love Me in the Light” on Instagram:
@lovemeinthelight

Subscribe to receive updates:
www.lmitl.org