Lana Wachowski passionately defends film industry after Covid woes

Lana Wachowski has launched an impassioned defence of the film industry after the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 56-year-old filmmaker has helmed the new movie 'The Matrix Resurrections' and admits that it has been hard to see many cinemas closed over the past two years due to the pandemic – as she recalled how films helped her come to terms with her trans identity.

Lana, who was formerly known as Larry Wachowski, told The Hollywood Reporter at the premiere of the new 'Matrix' movie in San Francisco: "I love movie theatres, and I grew up in them. My best childhood memories were when my family took the day off from school, and we all ran to the movies and packed as many movies as we could into a single day.

"My whole life, movie theatres have sustained me. When I was in high school and I was struggling with my identity, I would run to the movies for popcorn, sticky floors and a kung fu movie, and everything seemed like it was going to be OK."

The filmmaker continued: "It's been hard to be without movie theatres and have them cut off from us and have them closed down. It's been hard because the collective dreaming that happens in these spaces is how we imagine different futures, different lives, different possibilities, different kinds of hope and different kinds of love.

"In my own life, I didn't always believe in this world. I didn't believe that I could be an out trans woman Hollywood director."

Lana also reflected on how the 1996 movie 'Bound', which she directed with her sister Lilly, was a pivotal moment in her life and career.

She explained: "That act of imagining a different kind of outcome for that kind of movie allowed me to imagine a different outcome for my life.

"I'm hoping that one day we can get back into movies like this, like tonight, and we can sit shoulder to shoulder again, and we can collectively imagine a different future that maybe the one we're in right now. Maybe that starts tonight."