Two-Spirit

First there is sound—more of a soundscape than music, brightened by birdsong—then the contours of Georgina’s house appear against the blue of the early morning. The camera zooms in on details of her body while she prepares for a new day.

Georgina arrived in this small indigenous community in northern Colombia more than a decade ago. A trans woman, she couldn’t count on any understanding from her new neighbors. In short, she was an unwelcome stranger. And after all these years she still is. The camera follows her as she approaches some fellow villagers, asks them in a friendly manner how they are, and is subjected to open mockery.

Georgina’s feelings of humiliation and isolation become palpable in carefully framed observations of her daily life and splendid metaphorical landscape shots, while she shares her thoughts in the voiceover. She counters the hostility surrounding her with the words “I have only love,” and they hit home like a sledgehammer.