QUEER SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL features MAJOR! Transgender rights doco

BY MARK MORELLINI

The fourth Queer Screen Film Festival comes to Sydney with a program of 12 of the best LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) films gathered from around the world, of which six are Australian premieres. From bittersweet love stories to bitchy horror comedies and insightful documentaries, there’s something to satisfy all festival attendees’ tastes.

Festival Director Paul Struthers said it’s a misconception that this film festival is solely for queer audiences:

“It is correct that films we play all feature queer characters, and the festival is a safe space for the queer community to see their stories onscreen. But it is not solely for a queer audience. Besides being queer, the films are of very high quality, which I hope all cinema fans will enjoy, and we welcome them to the festival, as long as they are respectful of our community.”

One of the highlights screening at this festival is Major!, an award-winning documentary which centres on 75-year-old Miss Major Griffin-Gracy who lives in Oakland California. She is a transwoman activist and community leader for transgender rights with a particular focus on women of colour.

“The film chronicles Miss Major’s life and campaigns and her 40+ year fight for the rights of trans women of colour, particularly the girls who have been locked up in men’s jails and prisons. We hear from Miss Major and over 20 community members, mostly trans women of colour who are her daughters or granddaughters,” explained director/producer Annalise Ophelian.

“It’s a multi-generational story about navigating the world as a young transwoman of colour, it’s an indictment of the prison industrial complex in the United States and there are themes of intersectionality and history. Miss Major was at the Stonewall rebellion, where she wasn’t particularly active, and later locked up at Attica just after the 1971 uprising, where she had her political awakening. It’s a story of resilience and survival as a form of resistance.”

Annalise said she was grateful to have worked with Miss Major, a funny and generous lady who she considers as family.

Miss Major is widely regarded as the ‘blueprint for liberation’ and is dedicated, hardworking and builds resilience and self-determination amongst the transgender community. Over the years she has been witness to many vilifications against her community, which would horrify.

“Murder, black eyes, broken limbs, cracked ribs, being chased for absolutely no reason, no respect, being maligned, tortured and on and on and on. This comes from the air we breathe, it’s everywhere, because of laws and rules that seek to end us,” explained Miss Major.

“It comes from the people who don’t understand us who live next door. Who malign us and harass us because they think they can get away with it. The only place we can be safe is with another girl, hopefully. We’re not even safe with the people who claim to love us: partners, boyfriends, wives…and family”.

Miss Major states in this documentary that their community must look after themselves, as “the rest of the world really don’t really give a shit whether we live or die”. She said that in the past 30 years she hasn’t noticed a building acceptance/tolerance for the transgender community even though there have been attempts.

“Successes? No. Nowhere. They’re not building shit to respect us, fortify us, give us the respect we’re due. They still treat us like this is a choice we made and whatever we get we’ve asked for it. Well I didn’t ask for this shit, but I’m going to be damn sure that while I’m still here I do everything I can do, have a good time and do this sh*t right.”

The idea to transform Miss Major’s life into a documentary came from the lady herself, as she was forever asked by people when her story would be told. But what does Miss Major hope that straight audiences will absorb from this documentary?

“I would hope that they would get some knowledge about the errors that they have made as a group, that their way is not the only way and that gender has nothing to do with sex, and that gender is fluid and not rigid. Everybody does not believe or think like them. I would hope that they would understand by watching this that the people that they don’t know anything about and laugh about and point at and ridicule and disdain, that they’re not that different from them. And the next time they look in the mirror they think twice about how they treat others.”

The vilification and discrimination which transgender communities experience is a universal issue which needs to be dispelled. Peta Friend is a founding member of Trans Sydney Pride, a local social and support group for members of the Trans community.

She said that the issues this community faces daily are the basic fundamentals: housing, employment, discrimination and access to proper health care: “Although things have improved in the last couple of years we still have a long road ahead of us in regards to unconditional acceptance and recognition.”

Trans Sydney Pride chose to be co-presenters of this event because they felt the story deserved to be told. “Miss Major is a respected Trans elder and activist who serves as an inspiration and role model to all trans people, her care and individual attention at a grass roots level has enabled a lot of trans individuals to move forward and thrive in the world. Her story is rich in history and she is certainly one of my personal heroes. Hopefully this documentary will empower and enlighten people.”

Click through for full interviews with Miss Major and Annalise Ophelian.

MAJOR! Is screening on Sunday Sep 25, 3.30pm. $19.

QUEER SCREEN FILM FESTIVAL
Sep 20-25, Event Cinemas, George Street. $19-$85 (5 flexi-pass). Tickets & info: www.queerscreen.org.au