Caer (Caught) is an extraordinary film that takes an unusual approach to highlight a very serious problem. Australian-based filmmaker Nicola Mai’s remarkable hybrid documentary is about drawing our attention to the problematic situation facing trans-Latina sex workers in Queens NY.
Mai chooses to do this by merging fiction and documentary, and this way he explores the epidemics of U.S. incarceration and deportation, making room for the women at the center of the violence to tell their own stories.
The stories featured in the film may be fictional but they are all based on very real experiences that the women have to deal with on a daily basis. The result is very powerful and such a convincing argument that it is time to end all the cruel discrimination they face.
Mai captures the solidarity of the women who eagerly support and help each other in such a spirit of genuine sisterhood. One very real part of the doc is when they all get together for the annual SlutWalk as part of a transnational movement calling for an end to rape culture, including victim blaming and slut shaming of sexual assault victims.
Mai is a sociologist, ethnographer, and filmmaker and a Professor of Sociology and Migration Studies at the University of Newcastle. To make the film he collaborated with the TRANSgrediendo Intercultural Collective, a grassroots nonprofit defending the rights of trans Latina migrant women in New York City.
An eye-opener that so deserves the widest possible audience
Caer was screening & streaming at NY NEWFEST and REEL AFFIRMATIONS in Washington DC follow https://twitter.com/NickMaiNormal for news of future scree8ngs
