The Seattle Trans Underground Film Festival (STUFF) returns this week, proving that independent and trans cinema is not only alive, but thriving. With a variety of features and shorts, it’s the local film festival to attend this week.
The fest runs October 15th through the 18th at the Northwest Film Forum (now open all week long!). Here are five highlights you definitely don’t want to miss.
Directed by May Matchim, the opening night feature is a queer ecology documentary about the diversity of sexuality and gender in what Matchim calls “the fantastically queer” place that is nature. Both self-reflexive and sincere, Amphibian is a film that doesn’t fall into easy boxes. It flags early on that it’s not going to use the framing of certain things being “natural” to make queerness more palatable. Instead, Amphibian evolves in scope and ambition, gently confronting some of its own preconceived notions and narratives to create a portrait of all the complex, layered beauty to be found in existence. Though largely relying on a variety of talking head interviews, Amphibian also taps into something personal as we hear Matchim reflect on her own journey to accepting her transness, culminating in a poignant reflection that ties it all together perfectly.
Showing Thursday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m.
Next is a film that bravely asks what if you took Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama, shot it like a mockumentary, kept the terrorism, added some satanism, and centered two of the most chaotic (complimentary) people you’ll ever meet? Gren Bee’s Trans Panic! follows Christian trans hyperpop musician Sara ‘T-Girl Nixon’ Jordan (Mia Sabine) who links up with the insecure intersex incel filmmaker Cody ‘Yung AJ’ Jones (Gren Bee) in order to carry out a terrorist attack to launch a music career and possibly also catch the attention of JD Vance like a reverse John Hinckley Jr. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, quite a lot. The pseudo-hangout movie is off-kilter even before it descends into complete chaos. But for those who can get on its wavelength, Trans Panic!‘s cheeky provocations and freewheeling approach pay off and build to a bloody finale that gets its pound of flesh and then some.
Showing Friday, October 16 at 6 p.m.
Raef Van Putten’s Jucks is an experimental sci-fi silent film with the most striking visuals of the festival. Shot entirely in black-and-white, it takes us far into the future—2064 AD, to be precise—with a troubled protagonist known as Jules as they navigate a dystopian hellscape (Denver City) in search of gold. This description still only barely scratches the surface of what’s in store for you as this film. Without any spoken words, it boasts an entrancing, droning score that doubles as an all-consuming radio frequency in the film, drowning everything else out. For those who can surrender themselves to this oddity, they’ll find something truly spellbinding.
Showing Saturday, October 17 at 4:30 p.m.
Louise Weard’s Castration Movie Chapter iii.ii Junior Ghosts—Premorphic Drift; a fragmentary passage is the feel-bad movie of the festival. For those not familiar with Weard’s filmography, this is one of several Castration Movies and lifts its characters from a prior entry. However, no prior Castration knowledge is required, as this one tells a self-contained story. And it’s Weard’s best entry yet. Following Izzy (played by Avalon Fast) as she desperately tries to stop her partner, Tiffany (Henri Gillespi), from transitioning, the film is both funnier and more painful than it sounds. Weard brings plenty of satirical bite to key scenes before bringing down the emotional hammer in the intimate moments between the couple. While you’ll feel a pit in your stomach all the way until the final lines, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more potent character study at the festival this year.
Showing Sunday, October 18 at 6:15 p.m.
Last but definitely not least is Deathbed (no, not 1977’s Death Bed: The Bed That Eats). Rather, this film is a scrappy, bite-sized, lo-fi local gem, about a haunting that disrupts a friend group. It’s filmed across Seattle (including in the Northwest Film Forum itself!). This already makes it worth seeing for that alone, but it’s also got some other tricks up its sleeves. Without giving anything away, there are some sinister scenes where the picture begins to distort and warp, drawing you in before snapping back to “normal.” Even when it’s a little rough around the edges, this is a feature, not a bug, with the crackling and distorting audio getting under your skin. It builds to visuals of ghosts taking shape out of static that may just haunt you as well.
Showing Sunday, October 18 at 7:30 p.m. as part of the WE LIVE shorts program
Still haven’t gotten your tickets? You can fix that by getting individual tickets here or a full pass here.
