Out Takes

12 Jul 2022

Queer Documentaries: TransAthletica & MDFF 2022

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Queer Documentaries: TransAthletica & MDFF 2022

We love a good queer doco’ at Out Takes and this July we’re spoilt for choice with a fantastic new docuseries on offer and the welcome return of the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. We had three special guests for this show, each one giving us an insight in to the behind the scenes process of getting their projects made and the importance of documentaries in sharing LGBTQIA+ stories with the world.

First up was Hannah McElhinney, one of the team behind the amazing and very timely new Australian documentary series TransAthletica, which has been made exclusively for TikTok. TransAthletica is a 17 part series that focuses on the trans experience in a world of gendered sports and features the voices of leading transgender athletes and activists. Also on the show were two filmmakers whose documentaries are featured in this years MDFF; ‘The Sound of Identity’ director James Kicklighter and John Tsiavis, the director of the short documentary ‘Mellow’. ‘The Sound of Identity’ is a unique, history making, feature length documentary starring Lucia Lucas, the first ever transgender woman performing an opera lead in the U.S. with a professional company in Tulsa Olahoma. Playing Don Giovanni, Lucia Lucas breaks archaic social barriers, making way for other trans opera performers. ‘Mellow’ is a moving portrait of a trans, non-binary activist in Los Angeles and shares his story of turning hardship into positivity even in the face of so many obstacles