Blonde hair blowing in the wind, bold lipstick on her mouth and a megaphone in her hands. This is how activist Indianara Siqueira is easily recognized in the protests on the streets of Rio. She and her followers. They are generally residents of Casa Nem (a space that helped found and shelter transsexuals in vulnerable situations) and admirers, such as the directors of the documentary that bears her name and was released this week in Cannes, France.
the feature film indianara participates in the Acid exhibition (Association du Cinéma Indépendant pour as Diffusion) and had packed sessions on the French Riviera. Alongside the feature film Pain and Glory, by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, competes with 18 other films for the Palma Queer award – dedicated to films with LGBTI themes –, which will be announced today (24).
For at least three decades, the 48-year-old activist has worked to defend the rights of transsexuals, women, prostitutes and access to health and education. Brazil is the country that records the highest number of deaths of trans people in the world, according to the non-governmental organization Transgender Europe (TGEU), based in Germany. One every two days, people are killed using a firearm. Indianara travels around the country giving lectures raising awareness of these statistics.
The directors of the documentary, Frenchwoman Aude Chevalier-Beaumel and Brazilian Marcelo Barbosa, filmed Indianara's daily life for two years, since 2016. In scenes of her daily life at Casa Nem, on the streets, in protests against the government of the former -President Michel Temer, during the campaign in last year's elections and, also, in private.
The cameras entered her house to talk about another urgent issue in Brazil: HIV/AIDS, a disease that has been growing among young people in the country. Indianara is married to a person who has the disease, lives in a serodiscordant relationship and speaks about this experience candidly.
“This is a chronic disease that, together with medications, destroys people’s bodies. It leaves the person fragile, in pain, he is a person with reduced mobility, I try to strengthen him”, taking the opportunity to demand more prevention policies. “Brazil has to return to being a reference,” she said.
The film also features scenes of mourning. In the midst of the recordings, the activist is surprised by the murder of councilor Marielle Franco. For security, with the help of international Non-Governmental Organizations that protect human rights defenders, she is convinced to install surveillance cameras around the house.
“I always received threats and I always ignored them. But not today. I suffered an attack and was thrown from a bus in 2016, when I almost stopped serving in the military. But in 2018, when Marielle was executed, the threats were stronger, it seems like they were close, we received help to protect ourselves. Today, I have bars and these monitors reminding me of this all the time”, she reveals.
Director Aude Chevalier-Beaum says Indianara and her struggle are intertwined. “We were just going to do a portrait of Indianara, but she doesn’t separate political life and public life, personal life and intimate life. Everything that happened in Brazil also happened inside it, deeply. It’s impossible to separate them,” she said in an interview with Radio France International (RFI).
O indianara It had three screenings in Cannes, with packed rooms and contracts to run on the commercial circuit during the week. Now, the directors await the announcement of Palm Queer, scheduled for Friday night in Cannes. Based on reports in the foreign press and public acclaim, the chances are many, says actress and trans activist Wescla Vasconcelos.
“We are sharing the representation of Indianara, of the trans movement in Brazil, with the world, it is a story of today”, he said. “People are impressed with her. She is not 'just' a trans person, in the trans struggle. She is an activist against inequalities, against poverty and oppression,” she added.
Wescla represents Indianara, banned from entering France because she had already been convicted and imprisoned, between 2007 and 2009, for the crime of pimping.
Conviction is yet another intriguing element in the protagonist's story, adds director Marcelo Barbosa, in an interview. “Indianara is a complex character. It is also an outlier because it is not perfect. She lived in Europe and had problems with the justice system. In fact, even though she has already served her sentence, she cannot return to France.”
Source: EBC Agency
