Film festivals are special things. Transgender film fests? There aren’t many places on the planet where you can be part of one. Three Dollar Bill Cinema presents Translations: The Seattle Transgender Film Festival 2010, returning for its fifth annual run over four days, May 13-16.  This year’s films are a mix of short films, documentaries, comedy, and compelling dramas that showcase the diversity of transgender filmmaking.

Queerly Canadian

Translations is a groundbreaking film festival providing the Pacific Northwest with a venue for films by, for, and about transgender people encouraging visibility and positive representations of transgender issues.  Launched in 2006, Translations is one of only a few transgender film festivals in the world.

Translations opens Thursday, May 13 with the free “Reality TG” showing and panel discussion and then closes on Sunday, May 16 with the award-winning “Open.”  Films will screen at three Seattle venues:  Capitol Hill Public Library, Erickson Theatre, and Northwest Film Forum

 “I am very proud of the fact that Three Dollar Bill Cinema is able to produce this film festival,” said Rachael Brister, Executive Director of Three Dollar Bill Cinema.  “It is the first film festival of its kind in the Pacific Northwest and one of only a handful of transgender film festivals in the world.”

Expectations are that this year’s festival will break the box office records of previous years.  A goal of the festival is to increase the visibility of trans people as well as films in the marketplace and in society itself. 

Open

This year’s festival is about showing the incredible diversity and breadth of transgender films.  It is also about the people who make them and the stories they tell.  The films run the gamut from experimental like “Maggots and Men” with an entirely drag king“transgender male” cast to  “Dinah East,” a classic film being rereleased by Kit Parker Films.

Local transgender film critic Sara Michelle Fetters, from Seattle Gay News and MovieFreak.com, will be a panelist discussing trans representation in media after the free “Reality TG” presentation at the Capitol Hill Library on Thursday, May 13. Brister from Three Dollar Bill Cinema will also be participating.

“With everything from short films to documentaries, from comedy to compelling drama, the festival program shows the incredible diversity of transgender filmmaking,” said Jason Plourde, Programming Director for Three Dollar Bill Cinema. 

Individual tickets are $6 for Three Dollar Bill Cinema members and $8 for non-members.  The Translations Festival Pass, which includes all 11 programs, is $50.  For more information and this year’s full line up, go to http://threedollarbillcinema.org/calendar/translations-2010

CHS is a proud partner of Three Dollar Bill Cinema and Northwest Film Forum. This article was featured on the site because of its value to the CHS community and is unrelated to that partnership.