With access to more creative outlets for LGBTQ+ filmmakers comes great progressive storytelling. That’s certainly the case for writer-director Beck Williams, who aims to move the needle in Hollywood toward more nuanced representation of the trans experience on screen. Pace, an LGBTQ+ boxing drama written and directed by Williams, recently premiered at the Oscar-qualifying Out on Film Film Festival in Atlanta and takes an intimate look at navigating a difficult choice about one’s identity and sexuality. The short film follows Remy (Williams), a transmasculine boxer struggling with dysphoria while hiding his upcoming surgical procedure from his concerned partner (Kelly Lou Dennis), and Joey (Bex Taylor-Klaus), an anxious boxer returning to the gym after transitioning and fearing judgment from his former boxing community. When Remy invites Joey to train with him, the two form a friendship as they navigate their unique challenges.

Here, Deadline speaks with Williams about martial arts, queer representation in Hollywood and shaping the trans experience.

DEADLINE: What inspired your idea for the short film?

BECK WILLIAMS: A couple of things came together. Bex [Taylor-Klaus] and I knew each other and we were already friends, so we trained together. I taught them boxing and trained them, and we became good friends. So I remember at one point I was like, "I love boxing." I'm a real martial arts nerd. So I thought it would be great to make a boxing film about the transgender experience, because it's something I'm passionate about. But at the same time, I was going through transition in my own marriage and I found that to be a pretty isolating and challenging experience that we eventually got through. I felt like I didn't know where to go or what to look for. I knew I couldn't be the only one going through this, but at the time it felt that way. I was like, "I don't see this portrayed very often, or I don't know who to really talk to about this." So it was therapeutic to write it and to have the desire to tell these kinds of stories on behalf of, not to say I’m explaining everyone’s experience or anything, but just to shed light on my community. We have so many barriers in transitioning and also in showing the side of a partner who has to go through that too. It’s hard for both people. That’s what I wanted to dive into.