Women of The Palms
Donation protected
womenofthepalms.com
Empowering the transgender/transsexual community and raising awareness through a documentary portrait of trans performers.
The rules of love and sex change with the manipulation of gender. Filmed primarily in the basement powder room of Viva Sex's transsexual show, Club Illusion, Women of The Palms offers a raw, gritty, and vulnerable window into the love lives of trans performers.
Before the historic LGBT bar, The Palms, in Los Angeles, was shut down due to redevelopment, I had the privilege to film and interview the performers up until the bar closed. I captured dramatic footage--one of the performers getting pulled over by the cops, a massive water leak in the bar that completely flooded it, and heart stopping and heart wrenching interviews and performances.
I filmed the project while at UCLA, and am now raising funds to complete the project--primarily, post-production and marketing. I have completed trailers; however, it is not a completed short film.
With transgender/transsexual issues largely on the frontier of human rights, I plan to complete the project to raise activism and awareness--shedding light on what it's like to be trans, and even moreso, what it's like to be trans and be in a relationship. This includes first-hand accounts of the men they are with: some boyfriends and some johns.
The funds will also go to acquiring any necessary footage to complete the film. Altogether the short will run roughly 20-30 minutes, and will take about 6 months to complete.
The funds will be spent on acquiring additional footage and paying crew ($5,000), post-production (roughly $10,000): editing ($7,000), color correction ($1,000), composing ($1,000), and sound mixing ($1,000). Although these are rough estimates, the project will cost about $15,000 to complete. After this, I plan to submit the film to festivals (Sundance, SXSW, etc), in addition to LGBT Festivals (Frameline, Outfest, etc.)
Organiser
Ben Fronckowiak
Organiser
Los Angeles, CA
