The film starring the trans architect from Rosario, Canela Grandi, will donate 30 percent of its virtual platform earnings to the solidarity campaign of the LGBTIQ+ League of the Provinces.

By Alexis Oliva

Canela Grandi, a 62-year-old trans architect from Rosario, is the protagonist of Canela – You Only Live Twice , a film by director Cecilia del Valle, which will premiere on May 14 on a virtual platform. The film also serves as a solidarity initiative for LGBTQ+ communities impacted by the crisis. Through the LGBTIQ+ League of the Provinces, 30 percent of the proceeds will be donated to support transgender people in vulnerable situations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From that date, the film will be available on the Puentes de Cine for 160 pesos, with 50 pesos going to the solidarity campaign.

Funded by INCAA, Canela is a “borderline film, somewhere between documentary and fiction, because its staging is designed to generate certain situations and allow circumstances to emerge, which doesn't mean that the emerging circumstances aren't genuine,” explains its director. This embodiment of her own story was made possible by a relationship of trust, based “on care and affection in the gaze, in the interaction, and in the encounter” between the filmmaker and the protagonist.

The film narrates – in Cecilia's words – “a parenthesis in the life of Canela Grandi.” It tells the crucial story of someone who, at 48 years old and with three children, a successful professional and professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Rosario, decided fourteen years ago to begin his transformation. Some time later, Canela and Cecilia met in the context of a political and community activism project and became friends.

When the idea of ​​documenting her experience arose, Canela didn't hesitate: “I felt that a lot of people could see this story, that it would bring this to light in the kindest way possible, since at my age the issue wasn't about seduction and active sexuality, but rather a gender perspective. I trusted that they wouldn't see me as an object of desire, but as a person, and that something similar to how a twenty-year-old might see his mother could happen.”

The awareness of being an exception

“ I think the film can show trans people that if they have the opportunity to study and develop themselves, it’s possible to get ahead, to have a family and a profession, and that this condition shouldn’t relegate us to being employed in jobs no one wants to do or force us into prostitution. On the other hand, it can help someone my age, not necessarily young, to undertake a change like this,” Canela tells Presentes .

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However, she is aware of her exceptional situation within a discriminated-against community forced into a struggle for survival: “My story is very particular, and I don't think it's at all like most people's. It's not common to be an older, professional trans person with relative stability, children, and the wisdom that comes with age. All of that is completely different from most of the girls, who are young and haven't resolved their financial or family issues. In general, trans girls have other serious problems stemming from poverty. Here in Santa Fe, at least, a trans quota was established in the province .” In that sense, the film's promotional material highlights that “visibility and information are, for the trans community, privileges to which few have access.”

For Cecilia, her protagonist is “a minority within a minority. She is a middle-class trans woman who has spent much of her life within the values ​​of masculinity, which she is, of course, steeped in. But while she doesn't have the serious problems that trans people in Argentina and around the world face, being trans always means being marginalized. So, making visible a different story and the choice—in Canela's case, at almost 50 years old—of someone who allows herself to live the life she wants and defend the decision she makes, I think is always valuable.”

From Bafici, who didn't go to the daily meal.

Wearing makeup and large dark glasses, Canela adjusts her hair, glancing at herself in the rearview mirror of her orange 1960s Dodge pickup truck, which she will later drive through the city near the Flag Monument. In other scenes, she is seen at home with her children and granddaughter, at her doctor's and therapist's offices, with a friend who reads her tarot cards, and at the university with her students. "The truth of Architecture lies in the interior space, not in the walls that enclose it. This is the teaching that truly gives rise to Organic Architecture," she emphasizes to them.

That is her passion, which will occupy a large part of the interview for this article: “Regarding sexual identity, there is a lot of respect for diversity at the university, especially among young people and even among the authorities. But there are ideological differences and less openness surrounding the concept of Architecture, where I also promote 'diverse' non-rationalist ideas, in everything related to the philosophy of Organic Architecture.”

The film had been selected among the Argentine films that would participate in the 20th Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival (Bafici) 2020, which, like so many other public events, was suspended due to the pandemic. “ When the possibility of a charitable cause and helping others arose, the film found meaning, and so did I. There are times when certain actions aren't enough. This was already a country that had been hit quite hard, and this will require us, above all, to be attentive and understand how such a situation affects certain groups. There are people who are having a very difficult time,” says Cecilia.

Thiago Galván is a trans man, a student leader at the National University of Córdoba, and Secretary of Trans, Non-Binary, and Intersex Identities for the LGBTIQ+ League. These days, he's promoting the film, which he describes as follows: “It brings to light the life experience and journey of a 62-year-old trans woman, who in our community are often survivors. It also highlights the particularities of her personal journey, with respect to many unanswered questions or issues that remain unspoken. Furthermore, the fact that its release is accompanied by an initiative of social commitment and solidarity is what we need right now, because the trans, travesti, and non-binary community is the hardest hit by the context of isolation. Especially in material terms, because many of our comrades don't even have access to a daily meal, but also in terms of mental health.”

Integrity, the only capital

The phrase “you only live twice” resonates with Canela's words. “My other life,” she calls that time when she built some thirty buildings, supermarkets, and shopping centers. “I knew I was going to lose a lot of jobs, and that's what happened,” she recalls. “I only had the university left. Before, my clients were supermarket owners, wealthy investors, all men and around sixty years old; later, they were all women, the same age but with much less purchasing power. Now they're young people, generally married couples the age of my children, who commission me to build houses or small commercial spaces. They're people who see the trans issue differently.”

“If you think of the world like a big businessperson, the losses I suffered would be unacceptable. No company would make the drastic changes I made as a person. But I'm not a company. You have to risk losing ,” Canela argues. And he concludes: “Being true to yourself is the only thing you have in life.”

Canela – You Only Live Twice can be seen from Thursday, May 14th on Puentes de Cine (enter in “virtual cinema”), the platform of the Independent Film Directors Association Independent Film Project (PCI).

Trailer
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkYHK6ed3SA
www.vimeo.com/user68261194

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