Tranny Fag (Bixa Travesty)

Centring around the life of Brazilian performance artist, musician and self-proclaimed “tranny fag” Linn da Quebrada, the latest project from directors Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman sees the titular star and her stage partner Jup do Bairro openly discuss what challenges they face from transphobia and racism growing up in the favelas of San Paulo, exploring how they use their music to give voice to the marginalised communities they fight for. Tranny Fag is an eye-opening and profound documentary, best viewed not as a traditional piece of cinema, but as a visual manifesto for trans rights that makes a powerful statement on contemporary gender politics.

Comprised of politically empowering musical performances, fly-on-the-wall conversations, moments of Quebrada and Bairro passionately discussing important talking points and a selection of provocative performance pieces, this movie is structurally unlike any other conventional documentary; there is no central through line nor constancy in its narrative structure, but everything included is solely aimed at achieving one thing: to challenge heteronormativity and contemporary binary gender politics – and to this end, it succeeds. As its derogatory title suggests, the piece is unflinching in its message and Quebrada herself has the ferocity and intellect to scream it from the rooftops. Especially in today’s political climate, this is a message worth listening to.

Whilst the importance of this film and its message goes without question, this feature is not without its faults. Being constructed from mainly interchanging musical performances and Quebrada’s monologues, the picture can often feel repetitive at times and starts to drag as a result. Likewise, some smaller moments seem to be out of place in respect to the rest of the movie and don’t serve any meaningful purpose, something we see in a prolonged shot of Quebrada sitting at a piano. However, none of these criticisms are able to detract too much from the work overall.

Tranny Fag is a documentary unlike anything you have seen before: it’s uncompromising and unapologetic (and rightly so) in delivering a powerful and eye-opening message on trans rights and queer empowerment. The feature marks an important point in queer cinema, and is certainly deserving of our attention.

Andrew Murray

Tranny Fag is released in select cinemas on 15^th June 2018.

Watch the trailer for Tranny Fag here: