“Trans Memoria” director Victoria Verseau is prepared for “Trans Love.”
The second a part of the deliberate trilogy about her transition, it will likely be a fictionalized tackle the life-changing journey she took in her twenties.
“I made a decision to go on a highway journey within the U.S. and hitchhike for 3 months. On my own! I’ve by no means heard of hitchhiking trans women and it was a particularly harmful journey, however I used to be younger and naïve. I’m glad I used to be, as a result of I’ve skilled essentially the most fantastic issues. And essentially the most horrible issues,” she says.
“Again then, I simply began taking hormones. I didn’t know the way I might be perceived by others: as a homosexual boy, trans particular person or as a lady? However I longed for love, and intercourse. My pals had been dropping their virginities and my life was on maintain. This journey changed into my very own sexual revolution.”
Verseau, who can be casting within the fall, will reveal her “largest secrets and techniques” within the movie.
“I met so many straight cis males on this journey. I met spiritual individuals, racist individuals, transphobic individuals. And I slept with them,” reveals the Swedish filmmaker.
“It might have ended badly and generally I’m wondering how shut I obtained to winding up like so many different trans ladies – murdered. It’s effective if this movie makes the viewers uncomfortable. I don’t thoughts if it’s scandalous.”
Her journey culminated in San Francisco, the place Verseau had facial feminization surgical procedure. Now, she relives the realities of her painful transition in doc “Trans Memoria,” premiering at Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
Offered by Outplay Movies, it was produced by Malin Hüber for Her Movie, and co-produced by Mathilde Raczymow for Les Movies du Bilboquet.
“I wasn’t coming into this considering I can be brutally trustworthy about how my vagina isn’t working. However my pals Athena and Amina had been initially of their transition and I needed to arrange them for his or her potential future. It’s very particular person – completely different our bodies react in another way. That they had a lot better outcomes than me,” she admits.
“We ended up deleting some scenes as a result of Amina felt the movie was too crucial of gender-confirmation surgical procedure, which was not my intention in any respect. I feel it’s clear that if I didn’t do the surgical procedure, I might have died. However it has been a battle.”
Within the movie, Verseau’s personal experiences and people of her pals are intertwined with the story of Meril, who died three years after her operation in Thailand.
“Her household condemned her determination. They erased her existence and there may be nothing left. We nonetheless haven’t discovered her grave.”
“I’m conscious that our group and plenty of allies have been crucial of all these tragic narratives about trans ladies. I perceive the necessity for extra optimistic tales, however I additionally assume it’s completely different if the creator is trans. I couldn’t alter the reality. Other than my transition, making this movie was essentially the most troublesome factor I’ve ever finished.”
Coming from a creative background, she wasn’t afraid of blending completely different codecs and types.
“Andrea Arnold is a giant inspiration. She will get so extraordinarily near her characters. So is Ruben Östlund – once I was youthful, I had an internship on considered one of his earlier movies. I suppose I similar to contrasting approaches.”
She’s additionally able to confide in her viewers.
“I’m nonetheless a bit nervous when speaking about very private issues, however I’ve made my alternative. I’ve lived a really dramatic, traumatic, superb life. I’ve lots to inform.”
“In terms of financing my subsequent movie in Sweden, I’m apprehensive. We now have a robust right-wing motion, which isn’t too ‘glad’ about LGBTQ+ individuals. Nonetheless, I’ve lived a few years with out being open about my transition. Now, I’m within the period once I need to share all these extraordinary issues I’ve been by means of. It offers me which means.”
