Program 2024
WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE ARE ON TRADITIONAL LANDS OF THE KULIN NATION. WE OFFER OUR RESPECT TO THE ELDERS OF THESE TRADITIONAL LANDS AND, THROUGH THEM, TO ALL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE.
WE ACKNOWLEDGE AND OFFER OUR RESPECT TO ALL SISTERGIRLS AND BROTHERBOYS. ALWAYS WAS, ALWAYS WILL BE, ABORIGINAL LAND.
Quick Links
PLAYED AT EVERY SESSION
The Beauty of Being Deaf
USA, 2021, 3 mins
Experimental Short
Dir. Chella Man
Captioned 
An underwater celebration of hearing loss. Artist, director, and author Chella Man presents a meditation on identity and language. “Shooting this piece required both the cast and production’s full hearts as we waded into our vulnerabilities. This ease was translated into the final film. We carried that rawness with us. I am forever grateful and proud of the healing and connections that were created this day.” – Chella Man
SESSION 1: (FRIDAY)
SAPPHIC FLICKS PRESENTS OPENING NIGHT
Guest Curated by Merryn Trescott & Jamie Connor
MAY 3RD, 6:30PM
Sapphic Flicks presents the Opening Night of TILDE, bringing First Nations trans folk, brotherboys and sistergirls together in celebration of our creativity, diversity of experience, and storytelling. It will be an opportunity for community and knowledge building; for our stories to take up space and be celebrated on the big screen.
The Alexander Ball
Australia, 2022, 30 mins
Dir. Jessica Magro
Documentary
Mature (M)
Captioned
‘The Alexander Ball’ is an observational documentary extravaganza celebrating Samoan-Maori-Australian trans woman of colour, Ella Ganza, and the Meanjin (Brisbane) ballroom scene, as the community prepares for one of biggest ballroom events of the year: The Alexander Ball.
Ballroom is a queer subculture founded by Black and Latinx trans women in 1960’s – 1970’s New York1 after facing continuous discrimination from the LGBTQIA community. It’s a global movement, lifestyle and a cutthroat competition where competitors known as walkers compete in various categories for the grand prize. Community competes in family-like structures called Houses led by Mothers and Fathers who care for their children in Ballroom and life. ‘The Alexander Ball’ is Australia’s first look into the hypnotizing world of Ballroom through an observational documentary extravaganza, following the exhilarating journey of Samoan-Māori-Australian trans woman of Colour Ella Ganza, the Mother of House of Alexander, as she and her ballroom family prepare for one of the biggest events of the year: The Alexander Ball.
Aribada
Columbia, 2022, 30 mins
Dir. Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau, Natalia Escobar,
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
Birthed in the lush Colombian forest, Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau & Natalia Escobar’s dreamy short has left its mark on the festival circuit, including Cannes. In a world where the real, the magical, and the spiritual entwine, the Indigenous trans women of the Emberá tribes fashion their own future.
Indigenous Luv (Hanky Code: The Movie)
USA, 2015, 5 mins
Experimental
Dir. Demian DineYazhi
A short film about cruising as an Indigenous Queer. Part of Hanky Code: The Movie, Indigenous Luv explores the different codes inherent in the hanky code & creates a crucial space for Indigenous Queer studies while critiquing Western homo/Queer culture. It asks the viewer to consider the romanticized body of non-Indigenous peoples in order to strive toward an imagined space where Queer phantasies of sexual orientation & gender identity/non-identity are either de/reconstructed, appropriated, or decolonized.
He Takatāpui Ahau
Aotearoa, 2021, 11 mins
Dir. Alesha Ahdar
When encouraged to return to their Marae, a gentle non-binary person decides to go back to their tūrangawaewae despite uncertainty that they’ll be accepted for who they are.
A takatāpui non-binary person has decided to go home to their marae for the first time since coming out to their everyday community. They have borne witness to homophobia and transphobia in the past from their family, and they’ve seen it on the whānau Facebook pages, so they don’t know how it’s gonna go.I think that the main character was right in being nervous to go home, because it was what they thought it was going to be. But then they find acceptance in an unexpected place.
TILDE MICRO-BUDGET COMMISSIONS PROGRAM:
Two staunch artists have taken on this task. First is the stunning Thea Raveneau, and second, part of the Motherless Collective, the one and only Stone Motherless Cold.
SESSION: 2 (SATURDAY)
OUR FUTURE
Screening & filmmaker in-conversation
MAY 4TH, 2PM
FREE EVENT
There is a wave of trans and gender expansive culture building strength. Australia’s young filmmakers are breaking through with poignant and deeply complex storytelling. Featuring the world premiere of the delicately beautiful Black Trans Miracle by Tinaye Nyathi, with screenings and in-conversations with filmmakers Luka Gracie (More Than This), AP Pobjoy (Unerased), Jasper Caverly (HEDGEHOG) and more to be announced.
Black Trans Miracle
Australia, 2023, 18 mins
Drama
Dir. Tinaye Nyathi
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
WORLD PREMIERE
Lindani, a neurotic young trans man, embarks on a journey to collect a cake for his partner’s birthday after an encounter with a stranger forces him to wrestle with his own identity, putting him at odds with his own desire for connection.
More than this. EP1
Australia, 2022, 28 mins
TV Series Drama
Creators: Olivia Deeble & Luka Gracie
Mature (M)
Captioned
Explore the real lives of five 17-year-old teenage students and their teacher when their worlds join in a classroom.
HEDGEHOG
Australia, 2022, 15 mins
Drama
Dir. Jasper Caverly
Mature (M)
Captioned
Brig Huang, a headstrong trans teenager, is propelled into their hangover when a reckless decision to have sex without a condom triggers an urgent determination for the ‘morning after’ pill.
SESSION: 3 (SATURDAY)
OUR ELDERS
Curated by TILDE programmers
MAY 4TH, 6PM
Celebrating our icons. Celebrating elders who ensured future spaces like TILDE. Through rarely seen experimental and archival hidden gems, we open up an opportunity for our elders to look at us, as much as we look at them. Starring Icons Carmen Rupe, Roberta Perkins and Jo Clifford. Do not miss Australia’s first documentary on trans lives.
Behind Me is Black
Aotearoa, 1999, 12 mins
Experimental Documentary
Dir. Cushla Dillion and Kristy Cameron
Unclassified (U)
No dialogue
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
This film hasn’t been seen for decades. In the 1970’s, Christchurch artist Paul Johns created an intimate portrait of the transgender community in Aotearoa/NZ, by capturing friends and acquaintances on 16mm. In 1999 Johns entrusted this footage to filmmakers Cameron and Dillon. They constructed a film that is an ode to Paul’s work, and an exploration of both the texture and internal qualities of the image. The subterranean soundtrack by sound artist Rachel Shearer adds to the evocation of memory, nostalgia and identity to weave together a dreamy trance-like journey.
Man Into Woman: The Transsexual Experience
Australia, 1983, 80 mins
Documentary
Dir. John Ruane
Contains suicide themes.
Man into Woman is the first documentary made about Australian trans lives. Given only a limited release in 1983, this surprisingly intimate and rarely seen film features trans icons such as Carmen Rupe, Roberta Perkins, Chanelle St Laurent and Noelena Tame. Man Into Woman contains suicide themes.
These Are My Hands
Scotland, 2018, 8 mins
Experimental Documentary
Dir. Evi Tsiligaridou
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
These Are My Hands is a short documentary film-poem written and performed by the radical British playwright Jo Clifford. It is a deeply moving, personal account of transgender embodiment in a lifetime, speaking of wounds, challenges, victories and the journey towards self empowerment. The poet’s voice is embraced by a lyrical, mesmerising soundtrack and together with the graceful and intimate visuals compose a profoundly tender piece.
SESSION: 4 (SATURDAY)
LATE NIGHT WITH GAY24 FILMS
Guest Curated by Jini Maxwell & Samantha Eckhardt
MAY 4TH, 9 PM
At TILDE in 2024, GAY24 are hosting the international premiere of Henry Hanson’s DOG MOVIE; a film about a tenderqueer couple whose eternal couch surfer who seems immune to their passive-aggressive insinuations that it might be time for her to find a new place – until they adopt a dog that shares the couch-surfer’s name, and chaos ensues.
Our feature is preceded by two shorts, which similarly shine an irreverent light on the domestic spaces that trans people carve out for themselves.
The first is Xanthra Phillippa and Mirha Soleil-Ross’ iconic GENDER TROUBLEMAKERS (1993), wherein the artists interview each other about the joy of t4t love & how they relate to the broader queer community.
The second, also by Hanson, is BROS BEFORE (2022), a comedy about two trans guys who heterosexually jerk off to porn together – until one of them gets a girlfriend, shifting the balance in their friendship.
This is a program to make trans people laugh and wince, as we celebrate how chaotic, how embarrassing, how passive aggressive and how utterly essential we are to each other – tofu scrambles and all.
These films contain nudity and adult language. 18+ event
Bros Before
USA, 2022, 19 mins
Comedy
Dir. Henry Hanson
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
Billy and Elijah are two trans bros who just happen to enjoy jerking off together – in a straight way. But when Billy starts dating a woman, Elijah must come to terms with his feelings for Billy and his own burgeoning homosexuality.
Gendertroublemakers
USA, 1993, 20 mins
Comedy
Dir. Mirha-Soleil Ross & Xanthra MacKay
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
What happens when two Transdykes get sick of non-transsexual’s uninformed representation of their sexualities and their lives? They grab their 8 millimetre home video camera, their last 200 bucks, and come up with an uncompromising in-your-face flick about their shitty relationships with gay men and their unabashed attraction to other transsexual women.
Dog Movie
USA, 2024, 55 mins
Comedy
Dir. Henry Hanson
Unclassified (U),
Captioned
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
A passive-aggressive tenderqueer couple sends their household into a quiet tailspin when they adopt an elderly dog with the same name as the unemployed couch surfer they just can’t seem to confront.
SESSION: 5 (SUNDAY)
PREMIERE SHORTS
May 5th, 1 pm
Trans stories are elevated when trans and gender diverse collective filmmakers take over the narrative. Our premiere shorts epitomise our festival theme, centering TGD directors, producers, cast and crew. From the sublimely absurd Australian Premiere of In their dreams all jellyfish are wet to the visionary mind of director Karimah Zakia Issa in Scaring Women At Night, we promise you that when we disrupt the norms of filmmaking, the results are exquisite. This year TILDE is working in solidarity with festivals across the world, with our first sibling festival exchange. Partnering with TRANSlations film festival Seattle, TILDE is thrilled to present the world premiere of Green Castles directed by Anto(n) Astudillo and Kelley Van Dilla. In exchange, our First Nation filmmaker commissions will screen at TRNSLations in June.
The Script
USA, 2023, 15 mins
Documentary
Dir. Brit Fryer Noah Schamus
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
VICTORIAN PREMIERE
Blending personal interviews with dramatised genre recreations, THE SCRIPT explores the complicated relationship between trans and nonbinary communities and medical providers regarding gender affirming care. With a playful approach toward experimentation, the film invites its participants and its audience to examine the limits of language and the nature of performance in building safe and affirming futures.
The Robbers
Austria, 2023, 15 mins
Dir. Isa Schieche
Drama
Parental Guidance (PG)
In German with English subtitles
Captioned
VICTORIAN PREMIERE
Three trans women meet in a country house to plan a robbery. The trick of the heist is that, in order to create a false trail, they disguise themselves as men. While they share everyday life as a well-established team and lovers, they practise speaking in a deep voice, walking manly and behaving in a masculine manner. In this process, they reach their emotional and physical limits and repeatedly fail to imitate male connoted behaviour.
Green Castles
USA, 2024, 35 mins
Drama
Dir. Anto(n) Astudillo & Kelley Van Dilla
In Spanish and English with subtitles
Captioned
WORLD PREMIERE
Green Castles follows Polo in their day-to-day life while they navigate medically transitioning, looking for work, and living alone in a lonely city. Though they find caring for plants easier than caring for themselves, an elder wise woman, Tia Silvia, constantly checks in on them and helps them on their journey. Every night Polo has the same dream: that they’re slowly turning into a being made of plants. Green Castles, the first collaboration between Anto(n) Astudillo and Kelley Van Dilla, represents a deepening of friendship through exploration of shared synchronicities in their lived experiences as trans and queer filmmakers. Anto(n) and Kelley also collaborate in building trans+ community, and healing care-centred filmmaking environments.
Scaring Women at Night
USA, 2022, 11mins
Drama
Dir. Karimah Zakia Issa
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
Two strangers are scared on a late walk home. As they try to escape one another, their worlds collide at an intersection forcing them to question who they’re afraid of and why.
In their dreams all jellyfish are wet
Austria, 2023, 27 mins
Comedy
Dir. Marie Luise Lehner
16+
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
This film is a manifesto for the fact that the rules by which we behave can be changed and transformed. The rules that determine the course of a sauna visit provide the structure. Orlando, who tries to master an inconspicuous visit to the sauna does not know the rules. After he has to leave the sauna during the infusion because his nipple piercings get too hot, he settles down hidden on a lounger and falls into a strange dream in which Laura’s beautiful cousin dances as a devilin an empty pool.
SESSION: 6 (SUNDAY)
AFTRS PRESENTS: WOMEN ON SET
May 5th, 3:30pm
Free Event
Consent educator, intimacy coordinator and performer Bayley Turner (Neighbours, Krystal Klairvoyant) sits down with leading actresses for a frank in-conversation about how we as a community can play a critical part in supporting trans women to thrive in the film industry. Featuring screen icon Ramon Te Wake (The Boy, the Queen & Everything in Between), Dax Carnay-Hanrahan (Transwoman kills Influencer) and Thea Raveneau (Savage Christmas).
SESSION: 7 (SUNDAY)
CLOSING NIGHT – OUR DESIRE LINES: COMMUNITY NIGHT
May 5th, 6 pm
A cinematic pairing that provides refreshingly honest perspectives on sex and relationships through a trans masculine lens. It is a rare occurrence to feel seen and understood, hopeful and motivated, deeply grateful for and connected to community, whilst also entertained and aroused, all at once. Opening this session is the short film Dismantle Me (2023, Dir. Max Disgrace). A comical proposition turns into an arousing powerplay when a trans woman helps a heartbroken trans man tidy up his messy bedroom.
Next, fresh from Sundance is the award-winning hybrid documentary feature Desire Lines (2024, Dir. Jules Rosskam), a powerful cross generational look at some of the trans masculine community’s struggles and triumphs. Desire Lines follows Ahmad, an older, Iranian-American trans man, on his exploration of LGBTQ+ archives and subsequently his own sexuality at a gay bathhouse. Woven with archival footage of trans elder and activist Lou Sullivan and recent interviews with gay trans mascs, this film delves into trans masculine experiences of gay sex, dating and hook-up culture, sexual health, men’s spaces and inclusion. Author Sam Elkin (Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga) will host a special community panel speaking to the issues raised within Desire Lines that are reflective of conversations witnessed within our local trans masc community.
Dismantle Me
UK, 2023, 13 mins
Drama
Dir. Max Disgrace
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
A comical proposition turns into an arousing powerplay when a smoldering-hot trans woman helps a heartbroken trans man tidy his messy bedroom. Associate produced by Lilly Wachowski, Dismantle Me is a dark comedy-romance by trans people of colour, and created with a majority transgender and non-binary cast and crew. Made in collaboration with Trans+ On Screen.
Desire Lines
USA, 2024, 83 mins
Documentary
Dir: Jules Rosskam
Unclassified (U)
Captioned
AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE FRESH FROM SUNDANCE
Identity. Desire. History.
An Iranian-American transman, Ahmad, searching for his place in history, finds more than just a link to the past in the archives. Drawing from first-person accounts, as well as fictionalized segments, filmmaker Jules Rosskam explores the lines of desire as they intersect with identity for many transmen.
Directed by leading academic and scholar Jules Rosskam (Something to Cry About Tilde 2019) and winner of the Next Special Jury Award at Sundance.
“Desire Lines is hypnotic and enduring, a remarkably incisive work that should be seen far and wide” – Cinema Daily US
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