Trans representation does not have to be flattering to be meaningful, according to the filmmaker behind “Trans Panic,” an indie found footage comedy that portrays trans women as deeply flawed characters.
“Trans Panic” follows two trans women. Sara, played by Mia Sabine, who has convinced herself that she should be a tradwife – a traditional wife who submits to her husband and does housework — and AJ, played by director Gren Bee, a closeted trans woman who is insistent that she is still a cis man, which leads to her being performatively conservative and hating on any and every idea that could be seen as even adjacently liberal.
Bee said she watched a documentary when she was 12 years old called “Shy Boys: IRL,” directed by Sara Gardephe, which followed a group of misogynistic men who believed they were entitled to women but were secretly deeply afraid of them all the same.
The documentary indirectly led to the creation of “Trans Panic” when she realized her friends were developing these toxic behaviors.
“I realized, wait a minute, all my friends are turning into horrible monsters. If I hadn’t found that documentary, I don’t think I would’ve become like that, but I think I would’ve accidentally fallen into an equally dangerous category, people who are bystanders to that behavior,” Bee said.
In “Trans Panic” Bee highlights the imperfect trans person who’s more flawed than not, finding the comedy in that.
During a Wicked Week screening hosted by the Cult Cinema Club, the audience laughed at absurdist jokes and gasped at the realization that the characters they were laughing at were archetypes real people fall into.
“In a system that oppresses trans filmmakers and queer people in general, trans representation is important. Even if those portrayals aren’t necessarily positive, the fact we’re able to have conflicted portrayals is a win,” said Alex DeCroix, Cult Cinema Club president and a senior film and television major.
The film studies how conservatism impacts trans people and how hard it is to escape the mindsets someone is raised with.
“This is the third time I’ve seen it,” said Aurora Lowther, a senior theatre major who organized the screening. “I learned about this movie because Gren was selling DVDs at a sex club, and I bought one, and I loved it. I was telling all my friends, ‘oh my god, you need to see this, it’s trans ‘Rap World.’’’
In the initial concept of the film, the climax involved ghost cops coming back from the grave and haunting Sara and AJ, but the idea was scrapped in favor of a more grounded ending. But, after seeing the comedy found footage film “Rap World,” she realized she could make a found footage narrative without a supernatural element.
“I wanted to make a trans found footage movie. I had not conceived of making a trans found footage movie without ghosts, because that was all I had seen, so ‘Rap World’ saved my life,” Bee said.
“Trans Panic” is available for purchase on Bee’s Gumroad page.
Copy edited by Camila Verzino
