Synopsis
CAUGHT is a documentary using fictional and observational methods to express the struggles for justice of trans Latina women working in the New York City sex industry. The film was made through the collaboration with the TRANSgrediendo Intercultural Collective, a grass root association defending the rights of trans Latina migrant women in Queens, New York City. It is also a tribute to Lorena Borjas, the mother of Latin trans women living in Queens, who was one of the first victims of COVID-19 in New York in March 2020.
A word from Tënk
Through this ethno-fiction, the director, ethnographer and sociologist Nicola Mai, brings us up close and personal with trans women sex workers in New York City from South America. Produced in collaboration with the Transgredjendo Collective, this poignant film, sometimes harsh but tinged with humor, is more than a film testifying to the violence resulting from transphobia and the precarious conditions of undocumented trans women sex workers. Through his participatory, fictional and observational method - the script having been co-written with the protagonists who play their own role - the director creates a concrete space where these often invisibilized and stigmatized people can define their own narratives and representations about their life experiences.
FIFEQ Montréal’s team
