80% of people confess that they do not know a trans person. The revealing information was offered a few years ago by the documentary Disclosurewhich can be seen on Netflix and which showed how, given the lack of references in daily life, most people build their imagination thanks to what cinema, art or the media say. Therefore, if the representation of trans people has fallen on filmmakers who, by chance, do not know that reality, it is full of stereotypes, clichés or even jokes in bad taste. It’s been going on for decades.
For Hollywood, transsexuality was a source of ridicule and disgust, as was clearly seen in a film like Ace Ventura. A film that devastated the box office, that has been shown after dinner for years and that showed that everyone’s response to the revelation that a character was trans was gagging or vomiting. That is what the cinema has said, and that is why there is a lot of work to be done in the representation of the collective. That is why the arrival of new perspectives on the matter is always celebrated.
There it was 20,000 species of bees, which told the intimacy of a trans girl and moved the public and critics. That a film like Estíbaliz Urresola’s triumphed is a success for everyone, especially for Spain, a country always one step ahead in LGTBIQ+ rights, but which in the face of the trans law experienced a threat of regression and many transphobic insults.
What also usually happens is that when a film on a topic succeeds, all those that come after it are overshadowed by that success, something that does not affect genres such as family comedy or the thrillerbut yes to other more indie or political themes. The recent boom of Spanish female directors has led to criticism that there are many films about motherhood, despite the fact that all of them offer views that are not similar and that draw a reality that has not been explored until now or always made from the eyes of a man. .
That is why we must admit that just one year after 20,000 species of bees another film about trans childhood arrives, and underline that ‘other film’ as something positive, because both films are different and complementary. Half of Ana, Marta Nieto’s debut, which was presented at Seminci, focuses on how a mother faces this gender transition, but above all on how she experiences the pressures and violence that society exerts on that minor when they do not want to call him by the name he has chosen or let him enter the bathroom in which he feels identified. How does that affect the child, how does it affect the relationship with his mother?
half of Ana shows the importance of the environment, of the public school as a safety net for trans minors and the importance of raising awareness among all groups, as one of the hardest scenes in the film, Son’s doctor’s visit, makes clear. how the doctor treats him, labeling him only because of his genitals. A debut full of intelligence and sensitivity that comes after a short film Are ―the name of the protagonist child―, which serves as a preamble to this story in which she herself stars alongside Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Noa Álvarez. In fact, the point of view is different, since the film also investigates the identity of the mother, and how her son’s transition also serves to break her out of her pre-established schemes.
It seems that with films that are very specific about a topic, one every ten years is enough. However, I think they are interesting topics, especially because there are no answers.
Martha Nieto
— Filmmaker and actress
When the casting to choose the child protagonist was announced, Marta Nieto suffered transphobic attacks for looking for trans or non-binary kids. Those furious reactions surprised the director. “I didn’t expect it. I am not belligerent on networks or anywhere and I will not tell you the amount of atrocities that were said. I didn’t dare continue reading. There was so much shit that people dumped there, that it has made me think a lot about how much fear this topic creates. I don’t think that everyone who responds to that is a bad person, far from it, but they are very scared and have a very opaque way of thinking,” he remembers of that moment.
She also realized that she had to protect the film, because for her “it was something very sensitive.” “It strengthened my decision to talk about places of agreement, about spaces for dialogue, to not just stay with the reasoning of certain topics, but to bring it down to the heart and create empathy, which is the power of cinema. If something excites you, you will understand it. And this is the objective of the movie,” he points out.
That hatred also made “everything was rethought a lot because it is a delicate issue, and after this experience on networks we had to be very precise, because then we also have to defend it.” Even so, he was not afraid to introduce scenes that break conservative patterns, such as when the boy says he will have his period: “This happened to me with a trans child. So there is something of the freedom of thought that they have, which goes far beyond what the adult and the system is capable of understanding right now. That is why it is important that the conversation continues, and that is why identity is not a stagnant place, it is a place of exploration and expression that changes over time, and even more so in a child who is growing.”
The development of half of Ana It has been evolving parallel to the debate on the street and legislatively, with the trans law already approved when the film was going to be released, which meant that they were “updating the script all the time based on what was happening in society.” They were also affected in some way, and they do not hide it, by the arrival of 20,000 species of beesand the inevitable and unfair comparisons that can arise, something that does not live “with friction.”
That was “the first film there has been on the subject and it has been very successful, so it has opened a door and created an imaginary, but the conversation continues and there are more things to say and half of Ana “It has its space there.” “It is true that it seems that with films that are very specific about a topic, one every ten years is enough. However, I believe that they are topics that are interesting, especially because there are no answers, because the point is to explore and live better every day, learn to live and learn to raise,” says the director, who is confident that her film It provides nuances and different points of view of a reality that cinema has not yet looked too closely at.
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