New to VOD via MUBI this week:
BIXA TRAVESTY
Directors:
Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman
World Premiere:
Berlin 2018
Select Festivals:
Sheffield, Galway, Busan, Mar del Plata, Göteborg, Outfest, Frameline, Mix Copenhagen, Tampere
About:
A profile of a radical black trans performer in Brazil.
Linn da Quebrada is an outspoken transgender performance artist and musician based in São Paulo who uses any available platform to challenge heteronormative constructs of gender, often through confrontational lyrics and outfits. She’s also a drama queen and a narcissist, at least as represented in Priscilla and Goifman’s loose, episodic portrait. Aside from a few fleeting moments, the filmmakers seem content to allow da Quebrada to dictate her entire representation on camera, resulting in a very manufactured persona that almost never allows the viewer to get a deeper sense of the subject. Unfortunately, a little of her abrasive stage antics and mugging for the camera go a long way, ultimately making the film feel overlong and tedious.
what (not) to doc 