A Tribeca Film Festival Transphobic Failure

Art should definitely be given a fair share of creative license. But sometimes, can it go too far?

That's the question facing LGBT activists with a new film scheduled to show at Tribeca Film Festival. The saying goes that you can't judge something by its cover, but in this case, the title of the movie and the movie's poster certainly says a lot: Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives.

Offensive terminology? Yup. As Autumn Sandeen writes over at Pam's House Blend, the word "tranny" is pretty darn offensive -- equally as much as words like "faggot" or "sodomite."

"If you're gay, lesbian, or bisexual and you don't like it when people who aren't gay, lesbian, or bisexual refer to you as a 'faggot,' then that gives you an idea of how people who don't identify as transgender should approach the use of the term 'tranny,'" Sandeen writes, noting that the director of the film, Israel Luna, is not transgender.

But it doesn't stop just with the language in the title. The plot of the film is also causing a number of folks, including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, some major cause for concern. The film chronicles several transgender women, who in gory glamour kill a group of men who previously attacked them. Luna -- again, someone who does not identify as transgender -- calls the film an example of "transploitation," based on the concept of "blaxploitation" in the 1970s. Not sure that calling your film an example of "transploitation" is something to brag about, since it basically is admitting that your film exploits ugly stereotypes. And that's exactly what groups like GLAAD are condemning in urging the Tribeca Film Festival to pull the film.

"The film, its title and its marketing misrepresent the lives of transgender women and use grotesque, exploitative depictions of violence against transgender women in ways that make light of the horrific brutality they all too often face," GLAAD says.

The question at the heart of this is whether a film that depicts transgender people in a very unrealistic light, steeped in crazy revenge and violence, will do us any favors in our fight for LGBT justice. The answer, no matter how much one wants to see this film as art, is simply and clearly: no.

What adds insult to injury here is that the movie actually uses two murdered victims of transphobic violence in their trailer -- Angie Zapata and Jorge Lopez Mercado. These were two folks, brutally murdered. And a film that depicts transgender people as murderers is trying to tie these two folks to the film for marketing purposes? That's beyond icky. It's insulting.

Angie Zapata was eighteen-years-old when she was beaten to death by her assailant with fists and a fire extinguisher. Jorge Lopez Mercado was decapitated, and then had his arms and legs dismembered and dumped on the side of the road in Puerto Rico. To use their stories -- which spotlight the horrific violence that LGBT people face on a day-to-day basis -- to pimp a film about murdering crazy folks is tactless, to say the least.

GLAAD notes that the folks behind Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives are trying to purposely place the film within a transgender narrative. But nothing could be farther from the "transgender narrative" than a film about murdering crazy people, directed by someone who isn't transgender.

"While some of the actors in the film identify as transgender, the characters are written as drag queens, 'performing' femininity in a way that is completely artificial," GLAAD writes. "Because of its positioning as a transgender film, viewers unfamiliar with the lives of transgender women will likely leave this film with the impression that transgender women are ridiculous caricatures of 'real women.' It demeans actual transgender women who struggle for acceptance and respect in their day-to-day lives and to be valued for their contributions to our society."

And therein lies the problem. This film, by portraying transgender people in a very inaccurate and gruesome way, could have very dangerous consequences for LGBT people struggling for dignity and respect. Does Tribeca Film Festival really want to dirty their hands by screening this for the globe?

If you agree, send the Tribeca Film Festival a message that this film isn't something that should be celebrated at festivals, let alone one of the most important film festivals in the world. Films have the power to do amazing things. They can teach us, they can empower us, they can help us identify with others who are struggling.

But they can only do that when they're steeped in accuracy and integrity about the lives of the people they're portraying. Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives, whatever artistic merit might lie behind it, just doesn't do this fact justice. And Tribeca shouldn't reward it for portraying transgender folks in such a misleading light.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons