GLAAD Calls On Tribeca Film Festival to Pull Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives From Schedule
GLAAD was recently alerted by community members and allies to a film called Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives that will be screened at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival. After viewing the film, GLAAD is now calling on Tribeca to pull the film from its schedule.
Although the title is certainly problematic, it is far from the only issue with this film. The film, its title and its marketing misrepresent the lives of transgender women and use grotesque, exploitative depictions of violence against transgender women in ways that make light of the horrific brutality they all too often face. Click here to read the full Call to Action.
The film, in which two characters are murdered in a hate crime, is a pastiche of graphic violence and horror movie clichés, with a few scenes of campy humor. By marketing Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives as a "transploitation" film, by using the word "trannies" (a pejorative term for transgender people) in the title of the film, by casting transgender women in some roles, and by citing the murders of Angie Zapata and Jorge Mercado in the trailer, Israel Luna has attempted to place his film squarely within a transgender narrative.
Because of its positioning as a transgender film, viewers unfamiliar with the lives of transgender women will likely leave this film with the impression that transgender women are ridiculous caricatures of "real women." It demeans actual transgender women who struggle for acceptance and respect in their day-to-day lives and to be valued for their contributions to our society.
Transgender people are a marginalized and vulnerable minority in our culture, subjected to horrific hate crimes and pervasive discrimination. In this context, it is irresponsible and insulting to make a film that serves up graphic anti-transgender violence as a "hook" for an homage to B-movies of the 1970s. Anti-LGBT hate crimes are serious issues that do not translate into an exploitation film. The very nature of exploitation films is to shock and titillate audiences with extreme, sensationalized violence. Furthermore, it is simply crass to reference the recent murders of Angie Zapata and Jorge Mercado in the trailer, putting their brutal murders on par with the outlandish violence in this film.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
GLAAD finds it troubling that a film festival as respected as Tribeca would give a film that sensationalizes anti-transgender violence and misrepresents the lives of transgender women, a platform that affords such great exposure. The Tribeca Film Festival has a history of screening powerful LGBT films, such as the GLAAD Media Award-nominated Quentin Crisp biopic An Englishman in New York, and the GLAAD Media Award-winning film Transamerica, about a transgender woman reconnecting with her son. Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives does not meet, and in fact devalues, the standard of excellence established by the festival.
GLAAD has reached out to writer/director Israel Luna and the Tribeca Film Festival, and both have refused to take responsibility for the problematic content and offensive marketing of this film. We urge you to contact the Tribeca Film Festival and call on them to pull Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives from their schedule.
Tammie Rosen
Vice-President of Communications - Tribeca Film Festival
trosen@tribecaenterprises.com
(212) 941-2003
David Kwok
Director of Programming – Tribeca Film Festival
dkwok@tribecafilmfestival.org
(212) 941-2420
Kimberly Kress
Senior VP, Rubenstein Communications
kkress@rubenstein.com
(212) 843-9394
Film & Programming
(212) 941-2305
To send an email with suggested text to the Tribeca Film Festival contacts above, go to http://www.glaad.org/2010/calltoaction/tribeca.
Concerned community members have developed a Facebook group called "Boycott 'Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives' at the Tribeca Film Festival" that you can join at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106926329329724.
Comments
ANDDDDDD another thing, the film includes trandgendered women in todays world... Krystal Summers, Kelexis Davenport, Erica Andrews are all TRANSGENDERED, I assure you if they felt OFFENDED or that something was WRONG they wouldn't have went along with the movie! Check your facts before opening your mouth.
oh get off it!! It's freedom of expression you depressive GLAAD peoples!! Are you going to regulate what we look like next?? Or govern the gays as a whole?? I think the movie is awesome! Its different, and after all we are fighting for the right to be different.. to be gay in a straight world. Who are you guys to oppress that?? Can all gay people not express our artistic stance?? At what point do I need to start dressing to a certain code or acting a certain way to please GLAAD??
Regarding your latest statement GLAAD- "In a recent interview the filmmaker admits, "I agree that the baseball bat and the clumps of hair on the baseball bat are very disturbing..." This sort of violence is played for cheap laughs in the film..."
The clumps of hair on the baseball bat is NOT played for cheap laughs. There is nothing funny about the scene. If GLAAD thought there was anything "joke-y" about the scene, then I assume they also thought Rocky was a romantic comedy.
Trans Forming Media (Ashley Love's little blog) is a main protester in this despite the fact she probably didn't see the film (yet claims to have "pre-screened" it). If Ashley Love did see it, why did she make so many incorrect statements about the content of the film & how the film started with mentioning Angie and Jorge? She kept saying it on 3/25 all over message boards and has since removed those statements.
She should stick to crashing red carpet press lines...like how she did at previous GLAAD awards. Lying about seeing a film is no way to get credentials if this is the case.
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