Trans rights film timely and topical
FREE CeCe! a centrepiece for 11-day Queer Film Festival
The key for an excellent film festival is not just a roster of good films; you need movies that create great discussions.
One of those is this year’s Vancouver Queer Film Festival’s centrepiece gala offering, FREE CeCe!
One of 50-plus films at this year’s festival, this documentary by American filmmaker Jac Gares tells the story of a trans woman of colour who stood up for herself. In 2011 in Minneapolis, CeCe McDonald and some friends were walking past a bar when McDonald became the victim of a racist, transphobic attack. She fought off the attacker, who later died. McDonald went to jail. And, in case you are wondering, that is a particularly tough place for a trans woman, as this film so deftly reminds viewers.
The film, which is co-produced by LGBTQ activist and actor Laverne Cox — who plays an incarcerated trans woman in the Netflix hit Orange is the New Black — is a heart-stopping look at discrimination and downright wrong-headedness. Cox also appears on camera interviewing McDonald.
“The centrepiece gala tends to be the gala that creates the most discussion,” said Amber Dawn, who has co-curated this year’s festival with Anoushka Ratnarajah.
“The opening is all about arriving. The closing is all about saying goodbye, but the centrepiece — we know our audience is primed to really sink into themes and topics that are vital to us in our queer community. FREE CeCe!, we knew as soon as we saw the film we wanted to make it the centrepiece gala and we wanted to invite Jac Gares.”
Gares will be on hand for the postfilm question and answer session.
“I’ve been moved to tears by seeing people’s reactions to this film and how powerfully it resonates with them,” said Gares from New York City recently.
Gares reports she is in final negotiations with an educational film distributor, but in the meantime, it is festivals like VQFF that keep the movie — which debuted at the 2016 Los Angeles Film Festival — out there and reminding people of the struggle others face for the most basic of human rights.
The film began its life back in 2012 when Cox came to meet with Gares, who was then a producer on the PBS series In the Life, about the gay and lesbian community. Cox wanted to discuss McDonald’s dire situation: a second-degree murder charge and being forced into a men’s prison and put in solitary for her “own protection.”
“She (Cox) had a very personal take on it, because she had been a victim of street harassment. It was very personal and very real to her,” said Gares.
In the Life was subsequently cancelled after 20 years, and Gares had time to do a full documentary. She and Cox joined forces, and three years later FREE CeCe! was completed, right at the time LGBTQ rights became a top-lining issue.
“It was a huge cultural shift that my collaborator was a part of,” said Gares, adding that during filming Cox got called away to shoot the famous Time magazine cover with the headline The transgender tipping point: America’s next civil rights frontier.
Now, here we are in 2017, and the U.S. president wants to kick trans people out of the military.
“I was feeling really hopeful for having this film out in the world. I felt it was important. At least we were starting the work,” said Gares. “And then the election happened. I feel the film is more important now then when we premiered it in June (2016) because of the shift we are having politically.”
When Gares travels with the film, she is often accompanied by McDonald. But, coming to Vancouver was a no-go because of McDonald’s felony, and a gender marker issue with the state of Illinois means she can’t get a passport.
When McDonald speaks to crowds, Gares said she has one very clear message.
“CeCe has been basically telling people not to call the police when something arises,” said Gares. “That particular point is really resonating with the country now.”
With the rights of marginalized people still very much under attack, the art world plays an important role in educating, supporting and activating communities.
“That’s something our festival often does really well: look at where we’ve been as a communities, and where we are, and puts out calls to action — things we should continue to think about, things we can be active in and support,” said Dawn.
Opening the festival is the Sundance award-winner I Dream in Another Language (Sueno en Otro Idioma), from filmmaking brothers Ernesto and Carlos Contreras.
This film tells the story of a young linguist looking to preserve a language that survives in two men who have refused to speak to each other for 50 years. In a bid to bring them together, the linguist discovers a secret past.
The 11-day celebration offers a wide range of film choices from filmmakers around the world and close to home, with the latter highlighted in The Coast is Queer, an Aug. 18 event at the York Theatre showcasing short films from nine B.C. directors.