Genera+ion is a new show streaming on HBO Max.
The show, created by 19-year old Zelda Barnz and her father Daniel Barnz and written by an entirely LGBTQ+ writers room, follows a group of teenagers navigating modern sexuality and their deeply entrenched beliefs about life, love, and family in their conservative community. It is a show specifically aimed at illuminating the experience of Gen Z who “has made being politically active cool again and thanks to having grown up with social media, potentially grappled with identity more than any previous generation.”
One of those characters, though not a teenager, is Ana, played by Nava Mau. Ana is the aunt of Greta, a character who we get to know in the pilot episode. Since coming out as trans, Ana’s relationship with her sister (Greta’s mother) has deteriorated, but she wants to be a positive queer figure in Greta’s life. Ana is a kind and gentle person, but she doesn’t know much about raising kids and has zero tolerance for transphobia and toxic masculinity. Nava herself is a filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker who aims to illuminate the stories of marginalized people to transform their access to resources. She uses her background in linguistics and cognitive science as well as her experience working with survivors of violence as a legal assistant and peer counselor and advocate of LGBTQ+ survivors to inform her work.
I got the chance to sit down with Nava Mau about her experience working on Genera+ion and what we can expect for the first season, which premiered with three episodes on HBO Max on March 11th.
