{"id":2691,"date":"2021-11-19T23:39:06","date_gmt":"2021-11-20T02:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2021-11-19T23:39:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-20T02:39:06","slug":"nicolas-videlas-travesti-odyssey-an-archive-of-identity-at-idfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/nicolas-videlas-travesti-odyssey-an-archive-of-identity-at-idfa\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicol\u00e1s Videla\u2019s \u2018Travesti Odyssey\u2019 an Archive of Identity at IDFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Variety<\/a>
\nNovember 17, 2021<\/p>\n

On Oct. 18, 2019, just as tensions amid the Chilean protests throughout Santiago began to boil over, the final performance of Cabaret Traves\u00eda Travesti ended and with it a personal era for filmmaker Nicol\u00e1s Videla; one filled with vibrant expression, tumultuous relationships, and love. \u201cTravesti Odyssey\u201d is Videla\u2019s dig through the time capsule, a documentary reflecting on a chapter drenched in hilarity and sensitivity, and one shown through the scratchy lens of Mini DV and VHS memories.<\/p>\n

In addition to chronicling the performances, \u201cTravesti Odyssey\u201d takes the appropriate space to view difficulties behind the scenes, whether born of disagreements or oppression, and speaks truth to identity. The film has been nominated for the Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award and will show in the Luminous section of the festival. It is a co-production between Videla\u2019s Cinespecie and La Madre (Nicole Bonilla) in Chile.<\/p>\n

Variety spoke to Videla ahead of his documentary\u2019s premiere at IDFA.<\/p>\n

Can you speak about the importance of the political backdrop of \u2018Travesti Odyssey\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Travestis life expectations in Latin America don\u2019t go over 35 years old. We are not in history books and our memories don\u2019t usually flow through progeny. We\u2019ve been written just by psychiatrists and misrepresented on screen, from victims to antagonists. Society tries to include us into something some of us don\u2019t want to be part of, and also thinks they have the power to repair all the historical damage our population has inherited since colonization. But trans and queer people need to start speaking by ourselves. It\u2019s important to the world to consider our memory as well as to pay attention to the epistemological chance of a film that is not about \u2018\u2019travestis\u2019\u2019 but made by them.<\/p>\n

While performing in the cabaret, did you always intend to make a film about Traves\u00eda Travesti? How did you go about gathering footage over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through my years at the cabaret, I was kind of estranged from cinema. Bringing Amnesia to life was too much work and after my previous film I was just performing, producing drag parties and trying to work collectively with my peers. So, I did not intend to make a film, but as a control freak, I was pursuing all the photographers and videographers so they would give me all the footage surrounding the cabaret and my other productions, and keeping it through the years in my hard drives with no intention more than archive me and my friend\u2019s memory. For the cabaret\u2019s last show, on Oct. 18 2019, I took my home camera with me and started recording again post-show.<\/p>\n

What parallels do you see between the cabaret, its ending performances, and the Chilean uprising in 2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transness has always been a revolution. Structures are collapsing in Latin America because of inequality and the uprising in Chile may put an end to a constitution written 40 years ago during Pinochet\u2019s dictatorship. So, we\u2019ve seen the difficulties of social organization from a macro to a micro perspective in relation to the cabaret. Things were heating outside and inside our circus tent. We haven\u2019t been educated in other ways of organizations that are not hierarchical, so we\u2019ve been subjected to the difficulties of working collectively, especially between close friends. Neoliberalism stamps everything and we were not the exception. But how should we organize ourselves as queer people to be represented in the civil society demands?<\/p>\n

While being often hilarious and comical, \u201cTravesti Odyssey\u201d has moments of sensitivity and candor which give insight to its performers and their interpersonal relationships. How did you approach this balance in the documentary?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even with the inner drama that is to live as a non-normative person in a society that is exclusionary, violent and oppressive towards difference, comedy may become a strategy for survival and escape towards not being victimized. The local history of Chilean cabaret has been sharp but tender, using language as another tool to be deconstructed. My main focus in this film was Anastasia and Maraca\u2019s relationship and I was very intrigued how my two friends were besties but sometimes became their worst enemies. And this could be hilarious but also really sad. We live in a capitalist society where all Chilean artists are pushed by the state to compete between them for some money, and our drag scene had been influenced by northern winds where competition seems to be the objective and the only stage for queer artists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Variety November 17, 2021 On Oct. 18, 2019, just as tensions amid the Chilean protests throughout Santiago began to boil over, the final performance of Cabaret Traves\u00eda Travesti ended and with it a personal era for filmmaker Nicol\u00e1s Videla; one filled with vibrant expression, tumultuous relationships, and love. \u201cTravesti Odyssey\u201d is Videla\u2019s dig through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2691"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2696,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2691\/revisions\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chiledoc.cl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}