London Transgender Film Festival

Independent, experimental, cutting edge and diverse are just some words to describe this year’s London Transgender Film Festival in November 08.
Film is a diverse medium that speaks universally to us all. It is fluid, poetic, transitional and has the power to create and express externally ourselves in any colour, shape or form.

It’s an art form, it’s a documentary form, it’s a drama form, its experimental, it’s just one still image with a voice…or it’s a voice with a blank screen, or an image with no sound… it can just be however one creates it, sees it, hears it…dreams it… like a visual mirror that takes one into other dimensions, beyond the solid physical self… it can break down patterns, formulas and create new ones. It is never permanent, it is forever changing. In its true form it is limitless, it is transient, it is a medium of visual and sound transformations.

This year’s Festival is looking for works of all different styles and techniques.
It’s focus is to exhibit content of transgender, intersex, androgyny, gender variant, trans feminists, gender queer, and gender fluid persons of all natures, all races and cultures, ages and abilities….
Its aim is to increase trans visibility and acknowledgement, question the gender binary, to dispel ignorance and demystify stereotypes, unite and support a diverse LGBTQIH community and celebrate trans spaces and their friends.

The festival is also about communication and growth and will screen films of dynamic and important themes. It hopes to encourage and liberate self expression in independent trans filmmaking in London and globally for years to come.

Welcome to the London Transgender Film Festival, which brings you over 30 films from around the world. This is a festival of the profound: of two-spirited people: a festival of the conscious living. As an independent trans filmmaker for 20yrs, it is my passion that pulls all these films together. I want to support and encourage the development of this new and exciting Trans Screen Culture, so it can continue to grow. Transgender is all encompassing, its not just another box, nor another category of separation, it involves the whole LGBTQQIAH* community. We all need ongoing education and communication, so to be able to stay connected and understand each other. I've been watching the Trans Screen Culture increase at a rapid rate over the past 10 yrs - this festival is proof of that. Over 80 films were submitted but only about 4 from London and I question this? Universally people are starting to become more interested in Transgender, and making more films. So why hardly any films from London? Where are the London trans filmmakers? Or filmmakers of trans films? More development, funds and encouragement are needed to support local independent filmmaking within the Transgender community. It is a very important part of the film industry, of life, the stories are out there and the time is ripe. I speak from someone who has lived as a dyke for 39 yrs and since I have transitioned I don't feel so stuck in a fixed state of being anymore - from something that I wasn't to something that I now am, I feel more balanced in myself, both masculine and feminine, both male and female. My gender queerness is still connected to the Lesbian and Gay community, but by and large misunderstood, and sometimes ostracised because of ignorance. Transgender is the umbrella word for transsexual, gender variant, gender queer, gender questioning. It includes intersex, androgyny, gender fluid and the binary patterns of life. This is why I love the process of filmmaking, because it's such a fluid medium to work with and allows freedom of self-expression. It’s so transient in itself, like fluid frames, not a fixed state. Also the growth of Trans Youth Screen Culture in this festival is evident. This festival shows that Transgender youth have an important voice and want to be heard. So take that camera, mobile phone, wotever and make a film for next year. Films and film festivals help us to connect with a wider community and gain acceptance, which helps dispel stereotypes, myths and transphobia. That is what this festival is about, to encour-age local trans filmmaking, create a safe space to meet other trans folk and their friends and enjoy 30 amazing trans films from all over the world. This festival is like a spectrum of colour and I hope it lights up your life and you come away from it feeling inspired, like I have. See you there.

Transgender is...? What exactly is 'transgender'?
What it means to be transgender cannot be explained by this one word or one category alone since each person's experience is unique and we of course are multifaceted people. We are far more complex and much more interesting. For instance, I am a Transgender person of colour, an artist and an activist who identifies as both male and femme. Why then do we usually see and hear the same things about being transgender, that is if we do at all? I for one am bored of the limited, mostly negative, usually stereotypical representations of transgender people in the mainstream media. I have also been impatiently waiting for stories that delve much deeper than hormones, documents and surgery. Stories that go beyond them, to tell us real stories about who we actually are in our everyday lives as well as fictional ones that go beyond. This festival comprises just this kind of exploration. The films within tell us so much more than I have ever seen or heard before...celebratively, positively, seriously, humorously, and importantly.