Program 2014
Melbourne’s first international film festival created to showcase and support the work of trans and gender diverse filmmakers along with works that have trans and gender diverse content. Stories have the power to heal, connect, agitate and educate. We hold a vision of having more positive and authentic representation of gender diversity and a desire to create more dialogue between, as well as the sharing of stories across, communities both locally and globally.
Quick Links
SESSION 1: (FRIDAY)
Opening night
Friday 21 November, 8
TILDE’s official opening night party. Join us in a welcoming space for tunes from a DJ, a set from Simona Kapitolina, and celebrate the fierceness of the trans community. Simona is a home grown Melbourne singer–songwriter, DJ and producer.
3075 individually left-hand-drawn frames make up LEFT, a rotoscoped silent short film about a child, their bear, and moving away from home.
Boy Meets Girl
USA, 2013, 100 mins.
Dir. Eric Schaeffer
Boy Meets Girl is a poignant, sensitive and sex-positive coming of age comedy about three people living in Kentucky: Ricky, a transgender woman, Robby, her best friend from childhood, and Francesca, a beautiful young debutante waiting for her marine to return from the war. Both Robby and Ricky are taken by surprise when Ricky falls for Francesca. Ricky and Francesca strike up a friendship, and maybe a little more, which in turn forces all of them to confront parts of their own pasts, prejudices and feelings. Writer/Director Eric Schaeffer distinctly addresses issues of shame and hate, judgment and gender as the characters define and redefine themselves. Part drama, part romantic comedy, Boy Meets Girl explores what it means to be ‘real’ regardless of the gender or small town you’re born into.
SESSION: 2 (SATURDAY)
COLLECTION OF SHORTS
Saturday 22 November, 1pm
A collection of shorts from around the globe, featuring films either made by trans and gender diverse filmmakers or focusing on trans and gender diverse content. These films will screen with an intermission. Non-English language films will be subtitled.
Transgender Tuesdays
USA/UK, 2012, 34 mins.
Dir. Mark Freeman and Nathaniel Walters-Koh
Co-presented by cohealth
Twelve patients of the USA’s first public health clinic for transgender people share their amazing life experiences of the ‘bad old days’. Compassionate health care changed their lives and pioneered a new informed-consent international model of care. Transgender Tuesdays demonstrates the staunch resilience of the trans community and the integral support of trans allies.
Black is Blue
USA, 2014, 17 mins.
Dir. Cheryl Dunye
Sneak preview! A day in the life of Black, an African-American trans man, who works as a security guard inside an apartment block in Oakland, California, and has to negotiate vulnerability and stigma. This film explores, among other things, the added layers of oppression that come with being a trans person of colour.
Betwixt/Between
Taiwan, 2012, 8 mins.
Dir. YunTing Tsai
Captioned 
A beautifully choreographed interpretation of a time in life, undecided and somewhere between two alternatives.
My Genderation
UK, 2014, 3 films x 3 mins each.
Dir. Raphael Fox and Lewis Hancox
My Genderation is an ongoing documentary project that features small intimate portraits which explore gender variance in a unique and insightful way.
Audrey’s Beard
Canada, 2002, 2 mins.
Dir. Alec Butler
An experimental documentary about the journey from butch dyke to trans man, visual time lapse photography of the filmmaker’s beard growing in over a 21 day period in the 1992 when the filmmaker was a butch dyke with a beard, catches up with a poetic v.o. and text ten years later, in 2002, recorded and added to the film as the filmmaker was transitioning to male.
Sistagirls
Australia, 2014, 9 mins.
Dir. Gavin Henderson & Andy McNamara
From our friends at BentTV, this is an interview with Central Arrernte sistagirls Rosalina and Brie reflecting on sistagirl culture, history and identity in Central Australia, and their move to the Tiwi Islands
Dear Jiz
Canada, 2014, 12 mins.
Dir. Ms Naughty
Genderqueer porn star Jiz Lee bathes in a warm bath and the words of their fans. This erotic exploration of Jiz Lee’s body is also a testament to the way that porn can expand horizons and change minds.
Certainly Not
Germany, 2014, 6 mins (excerpt).
Dir. Resa-Philip Lunau
Captioned
Two excerpts from Resa-Philip Lunau’s documentary on experiences of varying gender identities. Here Ed talks about what it’s like to be a trans masculine person with a disability and Emy, a prominent sex worker rights activist, also speaks.
Certainly Not will screen with English subtitles.
Narcissus
Canada, 2011, 2 mins.
Dir. Coral Short
A young trans man notices himself, becomes transfixed with his image, and starts flirting leading up to a tentative, yet hot kiss. Self-reflection becomes self-acceptance.
SESSION: 3 (SATURDAY)
Saturday 22 November, 5pm.
15 +
For this session, persons aged 15 and over can be admitted, with persons under 15 also able to attend if in the company of a parent or adult guardian.
Dos Almas
USA, 2013, 16 mins.
Dir. Danielle Villegas
In the mid 1800s, deep in the western wilderness, two differently gendered people meet. Two-spirit natures are revealed when worlds collide.
My Prairie Home
Canada, 2013, 77 mins.
Dir. Chelsea McMullan
Official selection at Sundance 2014. My Prairie Home follows indie singer Rae Spoon and takes us on a playful, meditative and at times melancholic journey. Set against majestic images of the infinite expanses of the Canadian Prairies, Spoon sweetly croons us through their queer and musical coming of age. Interviews, performances and music sequences reveal Spoon’s inspiring process of building a life of their own, as a trans person and as a musician. My Prairie Home calls into question how we choose to define home, and asks us to celebrate the places in between, be they in music, geography or gender.
SESSION: 4 (SATURDAY)
Saturday 22 November, 8pm.
In My Shoes
Australia, 2014, 6 mins.
Dir. Monique Schafter and Mat Govoni
When Lukas is assigned to the women’s dormitory for his compulsory civil service in Germany, this trans man learns that there’s much more to transition than physical changes. Full of the zest for life, he meets the macho Fabio, who seems to personify everything he wants to be. The attraction between them gradually develops, but how much will they risk for their feelings, when Lucas has to reveal his transgender identity? A journey through queer Cologne, with a protagonist who is at once brave and flawed. Romeos is a film about love, friendship, the complexities of transitioning, and how it can impact on others.
Romeos
Germany, 2011, 94 mins.
Dir. Sabine Bernardi
When Lukas is assigned to the women’s dormitory for his compulsory civil service in Germany, this trans man learns that there’s much more to transition than physical changes. Full of the zest for life, he meets the macho Fabio, who seems to personify everything he wants to be. The attraction between them gradually develops, but how much will they risk for their feelings, when Lucas has to reveal his transgender identity? A journey through queer Cologne, with a protagonist who is at once brave and flawed. Romeos is a film about love, friendship, the complexities of transitioning, and how it can impact on others.
SESSION: 5 (SUNDAY)
Sunday 23 November, 3pm.
Moire
Spain, 2014, 14 mins.
Dir. Stephanie Cortes and Juancho Banuelos
Captioned
Each house keeps a family’s secret locked away. In a house dominated by Sergio’s grandfather, Sergio’s grandmother is a secret ally, providing precious moments in a safe hideaway for Sergio’s gender to be explored.
She Male Snails
Sweden, 2012, 72 mins.
Dir. Ester Martin Bergsmark
Captioned
She Male Snails is a visual fantasy of delicately flavoured contrasts, of delirium and sensuality, distillation and disjuncture, and the reclamation of femininity from the destruction of masculine forces. The film portrays people that are caught between genders, more than just a boy or girl, with an eye for feminine androgyny. The protagonists Eli and Ester struggle with anxiety, violence, and the problematic nature of self-definition. The film explores the challenges of reciprocating love, when simply remaining alive is a task. She Male Snails is a story of survival, love and resistance.
SESSION: 6 (SUNDAY)
Sunday 23 November, 6pm.
For this session, persons aged 15 and over can be admitted, with persons under 15 also able to attend if in the company of a parent or adult guardian.
Brotherboys Yarnin’ Up
Australia, 2014, 9 mins.
Dir. Lisa O’Brien and Aunty Gloria
Wuli Wuli and Waka Waka brotherboy Kai and Wiradjuri brotherboy Dean explain what it means to be a brotherboy and talk about their transition journeys and the support they have been given in their own Indigenous communities.
Kumu Hina
Hawai’i, 2014, 77 mins.
Dir. Dean Hamer
Kumu Hina’s Hawai’i is a place where someone assigned a little boy can grow up to be the woman of their dreams, and a young person can rise to become a leader among men. Set over a year in Honolulu, the film follows the year-long quest of Hina Wong-Kalu, a Native Hawaiian māhū – or transgender – teacher and leader who uses traditional culture to inspire a student to claim their place as leader of their school’s all-male hula troupe. This quest unfolds along an exploration of Hina’s relationship with a Tongan man that proves to be more complicated than hoped for, and hints at some of the compromises trans people may make. A documentary that unfolds like a narrative film, Kumu Hina offers insight into a Hawai’i rarely seen on screen.
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