Miss Rosewood (Denmark/United States) by Helle Jensen

Miss Rosewood Joins the Auteur Cinema Archive
A fearless portrait of transgression, transformation, and artistic truth.

The Auteur Cinema Archive proudly welcomes Miss Rosewood (Denmark/United States, 2017) by Helle Jensen, a provocative and intimate documentary that charts the uncompromising life and performances of New York-based gender-bending artist Rose Cory, also known as Miss Rosewood.

With disarming honesty and extreme vulnerability, the film plunges us into the flamboyant, anarchic, and unapologetically raw world of underground performance art in New York City. Miss Rosewood doesn’t simply blur boundaries—she obliterates them. Her body is both canvas and weapon; her stage shows are at once violent, erotic, political, and cathartic.

Director Helle Jensen, who first met Rosewood in the 1990s while studying photography in Manhattan, brings two decades of friendship and trust to the table. Her camera doesn’t shy away. It bears witness. It follows Rosewood through intimate transitions—surgical, emotional, spiritual—and documents how performance art becomes a survival mechanism, a scream of resistance, and a declaration of self.

Jensen’s background in cinematography is evident: the lens is unflinching, yet never exploitative. In the eye of the storm, she finds clarity—sometimes even tenderness—in chaos.

Curator Kris De Meester on the inclusion:
"Uncensored, intimate, uncomfortable, provocative, and radically honest—Miss Rosewood embodies what auteur cinema can be at its boldest. It’s a film that doesn’t ask for your comfort. It demands your presence. And yet, behind all the shock lies a deeply moving exploration of gender, identity, pain, and purpose. Rarely have I seen a portrait this raw and courageous.”

Premiered at CPH:DOX and selected for the Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival, Miss Rosewood is not for the faint of heart—but for those willing to engage, it offers one of the most revealing, authentic, and mind-expanding experiences cinema can provide.

By including Miss Rosewood in the Auteur Cinema Archive, we honor not just a film, but a filmmaker and subject who challenge norms, explode taboos, and remind us that art is most alive when it risks everything.