Directors: Victoria Bornaz and Julia Zárate, Scriptwriter: Julieta Ledesma, Production: Sinapsis Produccion, Copyright holder: Glowstar, Argentina, 4×30′, 2019, Rights: World
Argentinian series commissioned by Encuentro the public educational channel of Argentina. After winning support from INCAA, exploring the life of transgender people in Argentina. Transgender rights in Argentina have been lauded by many as some of the world’s most progressive. The country has one of the world’s most comprehensive transgender rights laws(Wikipedia).
Over four episodes we are told eight peoples stories that cross each other.
In the first episode Desire, the question is what happens when what you feel does not correspond to the imposed gender identity? Daniela Ruiz’s (transvestite) and Diego Watkins’s (trans male) stories cross at Salón de los Pasos Perdidos in the National Congress to reflect on the impact of the enactment of the Gender Identity Law on the lives of many Argentinians. It is a criticism of the heteronormativity gaze proposing new ways of seeing desire.
“There is no such thing on international broadcast television. You can find things like this in National Geographic, but not on public television. And for me, it is the most valuable thing of all, apart from being the work of a collective of cis persons, transvestites and trans masculinities. From the production model to the stories that are told, everything has the participation of the collective and from multiple gender perspectives. ”
Director Julia Zárate
Next episode is Body, at birth, society assigns each person a gender according to their genitalia. But biology should not determine who we are. Here Moyi Schwartzer, sports activist, footballer and a bee farmer who defines as transmasculine discover in football their militancy, while the aunt’s story reveals how her family accompanies the transition.
In The factory of desire, the voice and the words of transvestites, trans and non-binary collective is prioritized says Ese Montenegro who is a researcher on the show. She continues “Because we believe that there is an area of exploration. Although we have a law of gender identity that guarantees access to that right, to the identity that one lives and inhabits, it should also be part of those policies to promote and disseminate this type of rights that affect the quality of life of a lot of people. Not only from the transvestite collective.”
In episode three, Identity, María Castillo de Lima the first trans lyrical singer at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires has a conversation with Marianne Lilian Pérez, about identity, wishes and trans rights.
In the fourth episode Trans Childhood: Helena Klachko, a young trans-feminist actress and communicator on transgender childhoods, reflects on her own experience, there is an interview with her grandma. Helena, she says she had to deconstruct her own identity and brake with her own white middle-class cis gaze to change her perception. We also hear from Gabriela Mansilla, the mother of the first trans girl to legally transition at the age of 6.
Interviews from Tiempoar
