Demand that "Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives" Be Pulled from Tribeca Film Festival Line-up
GLAAD was recently alerted by community members and allies to a film called Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives that will be screened at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival.
GLAAD has since seen the film in its entirety and can report that the title is far from the only problem with this 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.
Misrepresenting the Lives of Transgender Women
Writer/director Israel Luna based his film on the "exploitation films" of the 1970s such as I Spit On Your Grave, about a woman who was raped and sought revenge on her attackers. The five lead characters in Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives are brutally attacked by a group of men; two do not survive the attack, but the surviving three seek gruesome revenge on their attackers. The film is a pastiche of graphic violence and horror movie clichés, with a few scenes of campy humor.
By marketing Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives as a "transploitation" film, by using the word "trannies" (a pejorative term for transgender people) in the title of the film, by casting transgender women in some roles, and by citing the murders of Angie Zapata and Jorge Mercado in the trailer, Israel Luna has attempted to place his film squarely within a transgender narrative.
However, 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. The very names of these over-the-top female caricatures (Emma Grashun, Rachel Slurr, et al.) drive this point home.
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.
Exploiting and Sensationalizing Anti-Transgender Violence
Transgender people are a marginalized and vulnerable minority in our culture, subjected to horrific hate crimes and pervasive discrimination. Relatively few media images of transgender people exist, so every media image becomes essential in educating audiences about transgender lives and working to eliminate the discrimination and violence they face.
In this context, it is irresponsible and insulting to make a film that serves up graphic anti-transgender violence as a "hook" for an homage to B-movies of the 1970s. Anti-LGBT hate crimes are serious issues that do not translate into an exploitation film. The very nature of exploitation films is to shock and titillate audiences with extreme, sensationalized violence.
Films like Boys Don't Cry and A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story have graphically portrayed the murders of transgender people. In a serious dramatic context, such depictions convey the tragic reality of the violence that many transgender people face. But in this film, repeated shots of a baseball bat covered in clumps of hair and blood are grotesque - and serve only as horror movie-like gore. Depictions of violence and brutality are immediately followed by ridiculous scenes that make light of the horrific crimes that have been committed. There is nothing funny about the murders of countless LGBT people who have fallen victim to hate-motivated violence.
Furthermore, the filmmakers have chosen to market Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives using a crass trailer that opens with references to the recent murders of Angie Zapata and Jorge Mercado, putting their brutal murders on par with the outlandish violence in this film.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
GLAAD finds it troubling that a film festival as respected as Tribeca would give a film that sensationalizes anti-transgender violence and misrepresents the lives of transgender women, a platform that affords such great exposure. The Tribeca Film Festival has a history of screening powerful LGBT films, such as the GLAAD Media Award-nominated Quentin Crisp biopic An Englishman in New York, and the GLAAD Media Award-winning film Transamerica, about a transgender woman reconnecting with her son. Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives does not meet, and in fact devalues, the standard of excellence established by the festival.
GLAAD has reached out to writer/director Israel Luna and the Tribeca Film Festival, and both have refused to take responsibility for the problematic content and offensive marketing of this film.
Boycotting a movie is one thing. If you don't want to see it, then don't. But attempting to dictate what the public can see by attempting to get it pulled from a film festival is being just as wrong as those who would ban other books, movies, etc. that are GLBT in nature.
ReplyDeleteFreedom of expression does not stop at things WE like. It applies to EVERYTHING.
Here is a good reply from Helen Boyd... http://www.myhusbandbetty.com/2010/03/25/ongoing-glaad-battle/
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a particularly good reply. It's just an attempt to "justify" censorship. Censorship is unjustifiable in my book.
ReplyDeleteI would have expected better from Boyd, anyway, being a published author. I'm sure she'd feel differently if someone was banning one of her books.
If people don't want to see a movie, they won't pay the money to. That's the best form of censorship: make something that people want to see or lose money.
If the movie sucks, or if it's extremely exploitave then no distributor will pick it up from the film festival, and the producers will get the message. But, by creating all this censorship buzz BEFORE it even gets to the film festival, we are just helping to give the movie more "buzz," and more press. We are HELPING it to get attention.
A fair one, since "Gayniggers from Out Outer Space" is an actual movie title. I would still be against censorship with either of the titles you suggested.
ReplyDeleteTrans got bigger problems than movie titles. But things like this are always easier to focus on than solving any real problems.
What is also interesting is that nobody has even seen this movie, yet. Hmmm, do you think all this controversy is part of the marketing plan? Could be, been done before.