Shades and Drumbeats. 1964. USA. Directed by Andrew Meyer. 25 min. 16 min
Bitch Beauty. 2009. USA. Directed by MM Serra. 7 min. Digital
Profissão: Travesti (Profession: Transvestite). 1982. Brazil. Directed by Olívio Tavares de Araújo. 38 min. New DCP Preservation
Program run time: 91 min
This program brings together films that challenge societal boundaries around gender, identity, and self-expression. These works examine the transgressive act of being unapologetically visible in a world that seeks to police difference. Whether through documentary, personal portraiture, or experimental montage, the filmmakers navigate spaces of performance, sexuality, and defiance. From Andrew Meyer’s Beat-infused vision of queer underground life in Shades and Drumbeats to MM Serra’s raw, visceral mix-mode documentary Bitch Beauty, this program centers individuals who defy the roles assigned to them—crossing lines, claiming space, and reimagining the self on their own terms. Brazilian critic and filmmaker Olívio Tavares de Araújo filmed and interviewed trans women in the megacity of São Paulo in the early 1980s, offering, with Profession: Transvestite, a rare, intimate look into daily lives of oppression, violence, and loneliness that find strength and resistance in an unyielding commitment to being who they’re meant to be.