In advance of San Francisco’s first Marcha de lxs Putxs (on June 4th), the Tenderloin Museum and organizers of the Marcha de lxs Putxs proudly present a screening of CAER (2021), a film honoring Transgender Latinx sex workers. An experimental and collaborative documentary combining fiction (ethnofiction) and observational nonfiction methods, CAER highlights the history, resilience, fierceness and joy of the sex worker community and serve as a reminder that we cannot be erased.
The film is the result of the collaboration between sociologist and filmmaker Nicola Mai, the principal investigator of the project, and the TRANSgrediendo Intercultural Collective, a grass roots association defending the rights of trans Latina migrant women in Queens, New York City. The story and the roles in the film were written and played by members of the TRANSgrediendo Intercultural Collective, who collaborated through several writing workshops allowing the people directly concerned to express their real individual and collective experiences of migration, sex work, and exploitation; they were also involved in the editing of the film.
In CAER, Rosa and Paloma, the two fictional protagonists, fight transphobic violence, persecution from the police and defend their cases of trafficking in an increasingly anti-migration political environment in the US. Together with their friends and colleagues they also assert their identities creatively during a drag show that allows them to counter their marginalization and stigmatization. CAER is also a tribute to the work and legacy of Lorena Borjas, the mother of these Latin transgender women living in Queens, who was one of the first victims of COVID-19 in New York in March 2020.
CAER screens in-person at the Tenderloin Museum at 5:30pm on Friday, June 3rd. After the screening, we will virtually host two of the principal filmmakers for a Q&A: Nicola Mai and Liaam Winslet, the Executive Director of the Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo (CITG), an advocacy organization Borjas founded and presided over as CEO until her untimely passing.
CAER was selected for the Outfest Fusion LGBTQ People of Color Film Festival 2021; the Sheffield DocFest 2021 (UK competition); the Vancouver Queer Film Festival 2021, and the Newfest LGBTQ+ NYC Film Festival 2021. It was awarded a special mention at the 2021 AL BORDE Festival Internacional de Cine Transfeminista and won the 2021 International Trans Film Festival Divergenti in Italy. Learn more at https://caer-film.org/!
FREE!
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