Valentina
Valentina
dir. Cássio Pereira dos Santos
Brazil, 2020 - 95
Seventeen-year-old Valentina (the feature debut of Thiessa Woinbackk, a transgender YouTuber and trans activist) moves to the countryside with her mother. They are looking for a fresh start. To avoid being bullied in her new school, Valentina tries to enrol with her social media name and keep the fact that she is trans a secret. However, things are not that simple. The local high school needs the signature of Valentina’s father for enrolment… “In contemporary Brazil, around 80% of trans teens are out of school. Adolescents who do not identify with their biological sex are harassed by peers and teachers. Nowadays, the life expectancy of the transgender community in Brazil is only 35 years. And most of these deaths are due to hate crimes. We made this film because life-affirming representation of trans characters is extremely important today. We hope Valentina will serve as a positive mirror for young people and other audiences, and inspire the LGBTQ community to keep on fighting to occupy schools, universities and other privileged spaces in society.” – Cássio Pereira dos Santos.
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