TGIRL VIDEO POSTCARD CLUB
Summer School Project for Video (Art) Vixens
(Still from Lullaby, Mirha-Soleil Ross, 2001.)
In 2006, I followed a girl — the first trans woman I was ever really friends with, somewhere between sisters and lovers, as is often the case — into the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, then a hotbed of hipster posturing. Sex Professionals of Canada were throwing a cabaret fundraiser, though I paid little attention, too interested in watching my friend breeze through the crowd of dykes and strippers and queers with identical red bandanas tied around their necks. I completely missed that something momentous was happening on stage: a performance by Mirha-Soleil Ross. Québécoise artist/sex worker/activist/icon Mirha delivered one of her classic monologues — a bawdy love letter to every john she’d ever had. This was my first encounter with the godmother of trans video and performance art, a woman who would soon become my political and artistic touchstone, my sometime auntie. A few years later, inspired by her work, I would make my own foray into performance and video art.
Video art has a long history in trans world. For almost as long as there have been cameras, there have been trans people using them to capture and record our often unseen experiences and inner lives. Mirha was not the first, but she was the first to dedicate a film festival to it. Counting Past 2: Transsexual, Transgender, and Intersex Film Festival ran for five years starting in 1997 — clocking in just a few months before FTM filmmaker Christopher Lee’s Tranny Fest in San Francisco (the two were in communication about it at the time).
At the time, there were really few established trans filmmakers and no spaces dedicated to showing their work. Mirha encouraged her friends, many of whom had never picked up a camera, to make their own films to screen at the festival — most of which are now lost to the sands of time. She herself had started making video diaries and experimental work at the start of the ‘90s, renting a camera and recording her life as a transsexual prostitute in videos like Chroniques (1992) and Adventures in Tucking with Jeanne B (1993).
(Still from Chroniques, Mirha-Soleil Ross, 1992.)
Inspired, as ever, by my dear Mimi — as well as contemporary artists working in video and experimental film like Tourmaline and Frances Arpaia — this summer I want to make a little video postcard club.
I’m looking for ten or more trans women/trans femmes to participate in a video art creation and exchange. Think of it like a postcard, a small gesture of connection sent off into the world without overthinking it.
What are the rules?
During the month of July, you must create a totally new 2-5 minute video art piece.
This piece must never have been screened elsewhere before, online or in person, and not available publicly until after the postcard club is finished.
This video/film can be fiction, documentary, animation, abstract, collage, whatever you like. It can be on any topic and in any medium. It does not have to be perfect by time of submission. It can have sound or be silent.
It can be in any or no language, from participants anywhere in the world.
The video will be sent to one of the other participating artists, but you won’t know who. Someone else’s video will be sent to you. You can choose to reach out and give them feedback, or just appreciate the few minutes you spend with their work alone.
Two screenshots of your choice, a small description of your film (50 words or less), and a short bio (25 words or less) will also be submitted and shared on the Tgirl Video Postcard Club instagram account for archival purposes.
You must leave the video up in a private, password protected upload for the month of August (Vimeo or YouTube preferred). After one month, you are free to do whatever you want with the video you created — submit to festivals, upload to YouTube, delete it forever.
You must not share the other person’s video without their consent. It’s for your eyes only for the month of the postcard club.
Films must be submitted on August 1st. It is a hard deadline and no films will be accepted after this date. Anyone who does not submit a film will not receive a film.
No one is making any money off of this — there is no submission fee, no funding, no payment, just the joy of making and sharing new creative work with other trans women. Shoot on film, digital, with your phone, whatever you have available!
This is art for art’s sake, on a no/low budget.
Sound good? Let me know if you’d like to participate here by June 28th.
Making begins July 1st! And videos will be shared to participants August 3rd. Only people who have submitted their films will receive one from someone else.
Follow tgirlvideoclub on IG for updates.
xx
M
Ps — Looking for inspiration? Check out trans women/femme video and filmmakers like Tourmaline, Frances Arpaia, Mirha-Soleil Ross, Vivek Shraya, Isabel Sandoval, Aiyyana Maracle, Greer Lankton, Nina Arsenault, ANOHNI, etc etc. Or take in some classic experimental film by artists like Maya Deren, Cheryl Dunye, Yoko Ono, Chantal Akerman, Barbara Hammer, Shu Lea Cheang, etc etc.