Synopsis
Cat, a transgender woman from Tennessee, got off parole in 2020. This film documents her first months of freedom in the pandemic. The piece was composed from phone videos, Skype calls, archival material, and original footage. Cat shares stories from her childhood and her life inside men’s prisons, including her relationship with her husband and former cellmate who remains incarcerated.
A word from Tënk
When a federal prison exclusively for men becomes the sanctuary that the real world cannot offer, it is rather difficult to contradict Cat, a trans woman from Tennessee, when she challenges us to list the negative aspects of living, or even growing up, in prison.
Free food and rent, books, computers, good friends, a sense of security, and lots of sex. "What more do you want?" Using her testimony and a few floating memories as a guiding thread – she who has just come out of a 21 years long incarceration –, Cat's portrait serves as both a commentary on social reintegration and how brutal this transition can be when poorly managed, as well as a commentary on the extreme precariousness, even systemic isolation, experienced by transgender women in the United States.
Refusing self-pity, Kriss Li's short film opts instead for a view that is as lucid as it is luminous, thus revealing a dreamy and romantic side of the character which we did not suspect, and she does so through the loving words of her husband, Doc.
"You're not the only one who dreams and all."
Jason Todd
Artistic Director
Tënk
