Welcome to Otherness Archive.
We are a visual archive documenting queer films and its pioneers, as well as a space for contemporary filmmakers.
Otherness Archive defies the historic censorship of homosexual, trans and racial themes, and instead highlights them as representations of otherness that deserve equal, if not greater, recognition. Otherness acts as a route into complex narratives and subjectivities that make for richer cinema.
By having a digital archive, we hope to make the discoverability of trans work more accessible. Through our recent grant, we chose to focus on building an accessible archive, with the first category being dedicated towards the trans masculine experience*. Through research, a call out and programed events this archive so far, is the result of one years research.
When Otherness Archive uses the term ‘trans masculine’, we are referring to all the nuances of the trans masc experience in moving image work, and to the various expressions of masculinity found across the trans community including, but not limited to, trans men, non-binary people, dykes, butches, bull daggers, crowdaggers, studs and gender non-conforming people. We really want to deconstruct heteropatriarchal barriers to access, such as age restrictions and mislabelling that further obscures trans works of art.
As Izzy Kroese states, our (un)official archive, “creates a playground for research and representation that lives outside the bounds of traditional cataloguing and binary systems. It empowers those who collect, those who donate. It allows limits to be pushed in a way that perhaps institutions wouldn’t fund; allows freedom from those in power, who have a stake in prolonging the heteronormative binaries system that we currently live within and around. It is a lawless land, it is ours for the taking.”
Source us!
This is a queer-led trans project and we ask that you credit Otherness Archive if you choose to source or reference any work found here. It has taken time and resources for us to cultivate this work in one place and we appreciate your respect for our time and the passion we individually have put into this much-needed resource.
Curatorial and Programming Clause: since this is a resource for the trans* and queer community, we ask that if you are an institution and/or a funded body and choose to curate using the work we’ve accumulated and categorized that you not only pay the artists but also donate to Otherness Archive, as the longevity and accessibility of this continued work requires financial sustainability. Thank you.
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This archive wouldn't be possible without the following contributors.
Creator: Sweatmother
Researchers: Romeo Roxman Gatt, Yaz Metcalfe, Izzy Kroese, Katayoun Jalilipour, Sweatmother, Nella Gocal
Archive Builders: Alicia Abieyuwa Bergamelli, Sweatmother, May Ziadé, Kit, Hand Dualeh, Eva Blake, Mona Najma Al Habib + Museum of Transology Team: Ant, Cerys, Aleks Jagielski, Charlie Gabriel Savage
Funders: Arts Council Project Grant, Brighton Pride, Urbanflow
Supporters: Fringe! Queer Film Festival, The Chateau, INFERNO, TAPE Collective, London Short Film Festival, Ugly Duck, Shangri La Glastonbury Festival, London Trans+ Pride, E-J Scott (Museum of Transology), Brighton Pride, Urbanflow, Ailo Ribas, Trans+ On Screen
Website Design: Sweatmother
Website Creators: Ana Meisel
And the artists who continue to make work.
"With no archive out there existing as a singular resource for transmasc film collections, its accessibility and ability to grow exponentially sounded magnificent." - Juan Barquin
