Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s sensitive immersion in the transgender community of Puerto Rico tributes and explores how gender dysphoria is a path to self discovery. ‘Mala Mala’ portrays The Butterflies Trans Foundation’s pursuit in line with their motto “Fighting to reach old age with dignity and equality.”

The directors of ‘Mala Mala’ share in this Exclusive Interview the making of the film:

Social media seems to have had an important role in the making of this movie…

Dan

We used different social media to get in touch with lots of different subjects, for instance Paxx I found through Instagram, when I was in Vermont and we had just come back from a trip to Puerto Rico and decided we had to go back. We then completely benefitted from social media to keep track of all the subjects.

Antonio

I knew April from high school and got in touch with him through Facebook. Since it’s a documentary and it’s real life and organic, the internet provided us a way to keep track of all the subjects constantly and see what they were doing during the day and that helped us pre-plan shooting.

How was the subjects’ response when you told them you wanted to make a movie about their community?

Dan

They all had a different reaction. A lot of the drag queens were really excited, it was showtime for them. We spent the first two thirds of production filming the drag queens, they were our first access. Each subject was very particular in the way they were going to be portrayed.

Antonio

A few of them at the beginning didn’t understand why we wanted to do a film on them because they had such few representations. They were surprised and we tried to explain what was interesting to us.

What were the major difficulties in the making of the movie, having to follow so many people’s lives?

Dan

Coordinating the schedule since the drags would come out at night, whereas others would be shot during the day. So the major difficulty was probably connected to the logistics in timing everything, it was a 24 hour filmmaking. The biggest challenge was staying awake.

Antonio

I think that to treat someone with respect in a film you have to know them. So it took us a long time during the course of two and a half years, because at the beginning we were strangers and had to get to know each other and actually become friends and connect at a level where we could respect each other and understand the circumstances, what they need. Time once again.

Dan

We didn’t want to enter the environment as if we had some authority over how they identified or who they were, that was really important for us. So a lot of the conversations in the film we approached as if we were asking to be educated by them on their community. We didn’t want to make a gender theory documentary, that wasn’t interesting to us.

How did the title Mala Mala come about?

Dan
When we were filming we knew the title would come up by the subjects. The phrase “Mala Mala” is appropriated by girls from Puerto Rico talking about menstruation and all the trans use it “mala, mala, mala, mala” when they’re really excited. It also established a tension between the subject matter.

Antonio

It also symbolises their innermost feelings, there’s no words to explain this feminine energy that is wild.

In the film this community is doubly “in between”, for gender and for provenance, since they’re from Puerto Rico…

Dan

Puerto Rico is one of the last colonies, it has an autonomous status, supposedly, but is still bound federally to the United States. So the people in Puerto Rico don’t get to vote for the person who might be sending their kids to war, it’s a really strange place to be in that sense and I think the relationship is very particular to the United States. I think it’s a paternalistic relationship and puts people who live there in a complicated position because there are also culture clashes and the fact that it isn’t recognised and Puerto Rico has it’s own history, that has been associated to other countries and has been independent at one point, and that has been erased from the American history books. In a way it feels as though it has been castrated. There’s a history of suppression on lots of fronts. Hence the film shows the marginalised of the marginalised.

Antonio

It’s also a silent island. It’s consuming everything that comes from the United States, so in a sense it doesn’t have a voice. This gave us the opportunity of having something to represent for this country.

What was the biggest revelation you had getting to know the members of The Butterflies Trans Foundation?

Dan

I feel like I’ve learnt a lot about myself in a strange way. The way I think about myself, and the words that I choose and how complicated those words are and how insufficient they are sometimes.

Antonio

When we watch the subjects we realise we need a lot of bravery to build up, to be the people that we want to be. It’s very easy to watch behind the camera and be fascinated and everything but it takes a lot to be in front of the camera and sharing what they’re sharing. They make it look easy, but it’s definitely a difficult thing to do. And they’re also survivors because they’ve got into what they wanted and are constantly trying.

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