Trans (1982 film)

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Trans
Trans 1982 film poster.jpg
Directed byManuel Herreros de Lemos
Mateo Manaure Arilla
Release date
  • 1982 (1982)
Running time
22 minutes
CountryVenezuela
LanguageSpanish

Trans is a Venezuelan short documentary film released in 1982 and directed by Manuel Herreros de Lemos and Mateo Manaure Arilla. It is one of the first Venezuelan audiovisual productions that, through first-person testimonies of trans women and transvestites, and opinions of representatives of the country's society, presents the reality of trans people in Caracas. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Trans starts with the presentation of a transvestite named “Venezuela” who performs a lip sync of Irene Cara's song “Fame” in a nightclub in the Sabana Grande district of Caracas. After that, her initial monologue begins with the phrase: [4] "My name is Venezuela. I'm a transvestite. I work here in this nightclub. It's my means, but it's not my goal". [4]

The 22-minute documentary film narrates the lives of different transvestites and trans people in Caracas in the early 1980s. Their testimonies are accompanied with interviews with other personalities, such as Simón Figuera Pérez, commander of the Caracas Metropolitan Police, and Fernando Bianco, director of the Venezuelan Psychiatric Research Center. [5]

The final scene of the documentary consists of a group of transvestites entering the illuminated fountain of Plaza Venezuela while the song “Abusadora” by Billo's Caracas Boys plays in the background. [1]

Production

It was co-produced with the help of the Film Department of the University of the Andes (ULA). It was previewed at the Second National Film Festival held from 30 October to 5 November 1982 in Mérida state, [5] while the official premiere took place at the National Cinematheque of Venezuela, located in the National Library, on 8 June 1983. [1]

By 2016 the short film was in a poor state of preservation, and the copies that were in the film archive of the National Cinematheque had disappeared. After a crowdfunding campaign and the efforts of Venezuelans Ignacio Ruan and Pablo Capurro of the El Astillero bookstore, the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) acquired 75 photographs and a copy of the film, which was restored and exhibited in February 2023 in Madrid for the inauguration of the Archivo Arkhé headquarters. [6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Rihuete-Varea, Irene (14 December 2023). ""Trans" (1982): Queering the Temporality of the Archive". ISLAA. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  2. ↑ Montes de Oca, Rodolfo (October 2022). "Sospechosos habituales: Diez aproximaciones a los antecedentes históricos del movimiento por los derechos humanos en Venezuela (1936-1999)" (PDF) (in Spanish). Provea. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 October 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  3. ↑ "1er. Festival Venezolano de Cine de La Diversidad". GranCine (in Spanish). 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  4. 1 2 Ochoa, Marcia (2014). "Queen for a day: transformistas, beauty queens, and the performance of femininity in Venezuela" (PDF). Duke University Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 June 2024. Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  5. 1 2 Claritza Arlenet Peña Zerpa, José Alirio Peña Zerpa (November 2011). "Trans, las heroínas de Herreros-Manaure" (PDF). Razón y Palabra (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 September 2024.
  6. ↑ Fernández-Santos, Elsa (19 February 2023). ""Mi familia me rechaza, pero en mi barrio me aceptan como soy": 'Trans', la joya recuperada del cine 'queer' venezolano". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 September 2024.
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