Radical Transfeminism Zine presents: Film x Poetry
'what if it doesn't get better, and what if this is all there is?' Radical Transfeminism zine presents films by Mijke van der Drift and Natasha Lall, alongside poetry from Nat Raha. This will include Mijke van der Drift and Alex Reuter’s A way of dying… (2017). Friday 6th July 2018
7 - 8.30pm
Godfrey Thomson Hall, Thomson’s Land, University of Edinburgh, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AQ Free. Wheelchair accessible. * A way of dying.... is an experimental film presenting and discussing contemporary North European trans contexts. The film presents the case for trans defeatism. It is concerned with the questions 'what if it doesn't get better, and what if this is all there is?' From this premise A way of dying.... addresses both the problems with transnormativity: the agglomerate of 'proper' ways of being trans, as well as the problem of trying to live alternative forms of life. A way of dying.... addresses mainstream violence, but does not claim alternative communities are harmless. The film addresses the problems of forming new lives both on the personal and the communal level. A desired innocence about the violence that is operational upon various levels makes this harder, thus A way of dying.... invites the viewer to swallow this and to see what form of life can happen from there. The emotional scope ranges from anger to tenderness to sadness, alternating between stillness and energetic outbursts. The texts of A way of dying.... are assembled from fragments of Kathy Acker, Luce Irigaray, and Jackie Wang - varying from lyrical to abstract to direct and poetic, and aim at destabilising the viewer and inviting a variety of interpretations.
A way of dying.... is the second project in the collaboration of Mijke van der Drift and Alex Reuter. Escaping into Common Places, having Gothic Adventures in the Neoclassical and Other Ages. Or: My Life is Framed by You, their first film, addressed hypervisibility of trans bodies.
* Natasha Lall is a multi-disciplinary artist dominantly working with sound, text and film. Lall’s work explores dysphoria in the contemporary realm. Recent work includes an installation of film, sound and sketches for It Gets Better V (2017) at The Insitute of Contemporary Arts, London. Previous solo shows include SCRUB (2016) at Life Gallery, London. Group shows include Ecocide (2015), Clubdead (2016) and Swatch (2017).
Lall regularly gives academic papers and talks on queer politics in the world of sound and music. Recent presentations include a talk on her novella SQUELCH (2017) at The Women’s Library, Glasgow and a paper entitled Brown Girls in the Club (2017) at Sonic Cyberfeminisms, Lincoln University. Lall has recently started a regular slot on the show Queerphonie on Sound Art Radio. Continuing on from much of her previous radio work, Lall uses the show to document contemporary queer histories in the form of interviews and music.
*
Nat Raha is a poet and trans / queer activist, living in Edinburgh. She is the author of three collections of poetry: of sirens / body & faultlines (Boiler House Press, forthcoming), countersonnets (Contraband Books, 2013) and Octet (Veer Books, 2010). Her essay ‘Transfeminine Brokenness, Radical Transfeminism’ appeared in the South Atlantic Quarterly. Nat is co-editor of the Radical Transfeminism zine, and is currently completing a PhD on queer Marxism and contemporary poetry at the University of Sussex.
*
Accessibility: the venue is wheelchair accessible, and has a hearing loop. All discussions will use a microphone. Subtitling of films TBC. Visual copies of the poetry will be projected at the event. The event will not have BSL interpretation. If you have additional access requirements, please contact Nat Raha.
