Director: Paul B. Preciado

Form meets subject matter in Spanish writer and activist Prediaco’s audacious, playful and thought-provoking documentary essay, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s ground-breaking 1928 novel. In Woolf’s book (and Sally Potter’s celebrated film adaption) an Elizabethan nobleman wakes up one day as a woman, then, over the subsequent centuries, reflects puckishly on gender roles and the ebb and flow of history. Preciado, who states in the opening sequence that they felt no need to write their biography as Woolf had ‘already fucking done it’, has various trans and non-binary individuals reading from the text, segueing, often seamlessly and movingly, into talking about their own experiences and philosophies. In a charmingly makeshift manner, the director has his narrators wearing a single ruff as a nod to period dress and reading against sparse scenery in an otherwise empty studio. The film does not shy from camp either with musical numbers including a wittily worded disco tune. It’s a fascinating and persuasive project, that shines a light on an increasingly beleaguered minority, while also exploring the relationship between life and art and how culture can be utilised as a tool of empowerment and self-discovery. It’s also fun and hearteningly optimistic.

David Willoughby

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