Frameline is thrilled to partner with guest bloggers from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire during this year's festival! We've invited students from the LGBTQA Studies: San Francisco Travel Seminar at UWEC to share their experiences of Frameline and their thoughts on San Francisco's queer community. As they attend Frameline and experience San Francisco, they will be creating LGBTQ-themed documentaries, as well as vetting films for their second Eau Queer Film Festival in the fall. For more information about the contributors, click here.
“I am finding that I like foreign films more and more each one I see and this one was fantastic. I love that the festival has highlighted trans stories and Lukas’ certainly was powerful in this film. I found myself engrossed in his story from the first moments. I knew coming in that his character had been placed in a women’s dormitory despite him being a male. I felt sympathy with his story before he even appeared on screen. His insecurities are what I think endeared me to him the most though. In a recurring scene throughout the film, Lukas starts out his day lifting weights and measuring his biceps, waist, chest -- even his butt. I found those scenes painful to watch as he ridiculed his apparent masculinity through size and obsession with muscle and manliness. It was points like that that broke my heart, and made me feel for his struggle. I think his journey of transition and coming to terms with his identity are the strong driving train of this film.” - Brianna Mueller
“In so many ways I was kind of disappointed in Romeos. Not so much with the story that was being told, but how it was being told. First off, I was so disturbed by the opening scene that showed how to inject testosterone. I have a needle phobia, so right away I was grossed out and had to turn away. I could relate to much of what Lukas was feeling, but in many ways I was more able to put myself into Fabio’s perspective. But then again, I disliked both of their personalities so relating positively to either of them was almost impossible. I suppose I just have too much of a personal connection to the story and I let that get in my way. One quote that we discussed after the film was when Lukas’s friend asked/said to him something along the lines of “if you like boys so much then why don’t you just stay a girl…” and I completely understood why Lukas couldn’t just stay a girl, but I didn’t like how it was never really answered either. I mean, Lukas did respond with "One thing has nothing to do with the other," but I feel like not everyone can grasp just what that means.
We had also discussed vaguely as a group which film Romeos or Gun Hill Road we liked better and out of those two I felt Romeos was more relatable overall. While Gun Hill Road showed a father not being able to understand his son, Romeos showed in a better way in which a trans teen deals with the every day. It shined a light on how trans people are often treated in public places such as schools, how they struggle with their own self identities and with their nearest and dearest family and friends struggling to understand them. It also put into perspective how trans individuals deal with relationship issues and issues dealing with how to act more masculine or feminine. There was more realism to this story; I guess that is what I’m trying to say.” -Tatjana Trommershauser