TILDE: OUR ELDERS

Screening

Celebrating our icons. Celebrating elders who ensured future spaces like TILDE. Through rarely seen experimental and archival hidden gems, we open up an opportunity for our elders to look at us, as much as we look at them. Representing Takatāpui, activists and genderqueer life from the ‘70s, ‘80s and today. Starring Icons Carmen Rupe, Roberta Perkins and Jo Clifford. Do not miss Australia’s first documentary on trans lives.

Man Into Woman: The Transsexual Experience
Australia, 1983, 80mins, Documentary, Dir. John Ruane, M
Man into Woman is the first documentary made about Australian trans lives. Given only a limited release in 1983, this surprisingly intimate and rarely seen film features trans icons such as Carmen Rupe, Roberta Perkins, Chanelle St Laurent and Noelena Tame. Man Into Woman contains suicide themes.

These are my hands
Australian Premiere
Scotland, 2018, 8 mins, Experimental Documentary, Dir. Evi Tsiligaridou, Captioned
These Are My Hands is a short documentary film-poem written and performed by the radical British playwright Jo Clifford. It is a deeply moving, personal account of transgender embodiment in a lifetime, speaking of wounds, challenges, victories and the journey towards self empowerment. The poet’s voice is embraced by a lyrical, mesmerising soundtrack and together with the graceful and intimate visuals compose a profoundly tender piece.

Behind Me is Black
Australian Premiere
Aotearoa, 1999, 12 mins, Experimental Documentary, Dir. Cushla Dillion and Kristy Cameron, Unclassified, [[uncaptioned but no dialogue]]
This film hasn’t been seen for decades. In the 1970’s, Christchurch artist Paul Johns created an intimate portrait of the transgender community in Aotearoa/NZ, by capturing friends and acquaintances on 16mm. In 1999 Johns entrusted this footage to filmmakers Cameron and Dillon. They constructed a film that is an ode to Paul’s work, and an exploration of both the texture and internal qualities of the image. The subterranean soundtrack by sound artist Rachel Shearer adds to the evocation of memory, nostalgia and identity to weave together a dreamy trance-like journey.