Case Studies»

Dangerous Curves

ART NOT WAR founder Laura Dawn’s short documentary, Dangerous Curves, made its debut in 2016 as an official selection of the DOC NYC film festival.

Dangerous Curves tells the story of Scott Galpin, an autistic man in rural Iowa who starts a sprint car team with Terri O’Connell, the sport’s first transgender driver. Born with both male and female genitalia, Terri O’Connell was raised male in the rough and tumble world of southern racing.

In 1999, after a lifetime as a successful driver, corrective surgery finally freed Terri to begin a new life as her authentic female self. After years of self-medicating to reckon with the psychological challenges of his autism, Scott Galpin’s dreams were in danger of being destroyed by alcoholism. But as Terri and Scott compete for their place in the good ol’ boy world of sprint car racing, they finally find acceptance and validation as outsiders in a community they’d known all their lives. Dangerous Curves tells the story of a friendship that is as unlikely as it is deep and transforming.