7 posts tagged “transgender”

What a welcome. It remembered me of Zurich Airport, warmly welcoming the French - for whatever reason -.. it is the first time in the tour the first words I read are: DEATH PENALTY. I have to think about the questionnaire I had to complete before entering the Indonesian territory: are you carrying film material? are you importing pornographic items to the country? Well. Is a stuffer pornographic? A dildo? A harnass? Is a multimedia show burnt on DVD a film? Shall I cross yes or no? I let you guess :-) at any case: I managed to get in easier than in Israel!!

Jakarta skyline

Jakarta is a HUGE traffic jam in a pre-national-day fever... I thought I knew what it means to drive like mad after my experience in Sri Lanka, but there is obviously always a possibility for improvement on this earth.. :-) It is stricly speaking possible to go by foot, but practically impossible. At any case: any transportation from A to B necessitates half an hour at least, wherever you go, better: one hour. For sure if I write a song on Jakarta, it will be about the traffic...

Actually, no! it will be about the LADIES'FLOOR of the fully booked hotel. I tried to explain to the receptionnist that it might be quite a hassle to have a room on a floor where no man is allowed, with a female security guard taking care of any unwelcomed visitor with a beard and an obviously masculine outfit - there is no other possibility for me than to ask for a specific escort to go to my room on the 15th floor. Every night!!! The Ladies' Floor :-) Do I look like a Lady? The security Guard decides than NO, pretty much like everybody here adressing me as a man, if I wear a beard or none - this is not a relevant indicator any more here. Or not a sufficient one ;-)

But still, quite a lot of participants have been enrolling for the king's workshop. Concentrated faces. Humourous questions. Excellent mood. Serious work. Guys, you really made my eve on that day!

Before leaving for Bali and more fun, more screenings, more parties, a huge party has been organized to close the Java part of the Q! Festival... I was too glad to make the first Drag King Show on the Island that evening, in the most beautiful location on the Beach, the Segara... before we all drunk too much of that interesting cocktail and went crazy on the dance floor under the fireworks, the moon... and the fog.

Bali team @ kudos_3

After the fantastic party with the girls last Saturday at the Gloria Club, I could not leave Saõ Paulo without checking out the boys.. :-)

The club is so OFF that the driver can not find it at once... I wonder why the club is so famous and said to be the most incredible transgender club on earth??? The Maîtresse de Maison, a very tall, slim, blonde Queen, is welcoming me warmly and shows me all around the place. Everything is true, there are little swimming pools and sauna places like séparées, misleading dark corridors, columns and stairs, I think this must be the cousin club of the Schwuz in Berlin - underground style.. I feel home.

The boys fraction of the filmmakers from the MIX Festival, from Buenos Aires, Los Angeles or Hamburg, are all here in the first row to support me and I see them glowing of joy and excitement. The screen is much too far away from me, i can not interact as I ususally do, but it seems nobody cares: I am the first Drag King ever to perform in Loca, they say, and again I must see the boys puzzled and hardly believing I can change so quickly... some of them will come to me after the show to touch my beard or even my chest (no, not more than that ;-) making me through this simple gesture simply and naturally one of them.

Garotos! Pomba! muito obrigado..

For a premiere it was quite one - Cris Barbie made an incredible job by customizing the party to the first Drag King Show in Sao Paulo! The doors of the Gloria Club, an ancient church (!!!), had to open one hour before to allow a thousand (awesome and beautiful) Paulistas...

God shave me

I feel quite isolated from the ultra-loud party happening downstairs, where the most pretty girls I ever saw are kissing wildly on the dance floor, as my backstage is in the mezzanine, with 2 bodyguards in front of the stairs and of the curtain - an over-air-conditioned area where only very few selected VIPs have access. I wonder if I will be able, out of the blue, to give them a glimpse of what it is, what it feels like to blow the gender frames, as the flyer says, to be transgender..

The moment the spot follows me from the upper stairs to the stage, i see the bodyguards making the way free,  and see, Paulistas, here you are, you give me your attention at once, I see you all being amazed and confused to see me as a boy, as a girl, as eveything inbetween, I see your eyes wide open and your cameras all lightened as I shave my second face half in the white spot, I feel you dance and  jump with me on the 3rd sex sound, you gave me such an incredible energy and I go on, I nearly lose my voice on Homofobia, I see you shout and scream and raise your arms in front of the powerful clip of Saskia about the Parada Gay de Varsovia, I see you fight to get one of the flyers I throw all around the stage... and you say yeah! when I ask us to fight for our rights an freedom.

Homofobia @ Gloria/Cha com Bolachas

After the show i usually give one T-shirt to my hosts, but this time it is the only other drag king if the night, the oh so nice and cute Juliana from the Gloria Club, who gives me her own, I put it on at once to party "all night long" with the Mix Film festival crew...