The 18-minute short film DOLLS is trans filmmaker Geena Rocero's directorial debut, starring an entirely trans-women cast.

A new sci-fi thriller short film, with Matrix co-director Lilly Wachowski serving as executive producer, features an all-transgender-women cast.

The 18-minute film, Dolls, marks the directorial debut of trans filmmaker Geena Rocero, and the cast includes Yên Sen, Arewà Basit, Macy Rodman and Vas Eli, as well as the director herself.

Described as a trans-coded take on 70s cult classic The Stepford Wives, the new film follows Yan, a private investigator who infiltrates a suspicious dating workshop for transgender women after being hired to find a missing girl.

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Gene, the power-hungry head of the workshop, is rumoured to be running a cult. However, she claims she’s only helping individuals process relationship problems.

But altogether-darker forces appear to be at work…

‘Beautiful, weird, striking debut’

“Dolls is my attempt to birth the internal chatter that ruminates in my head,” Rocero told Them. “All those years admiring directors like Claire Denis, Lucrecia Martel and Park Chan-wook, I told myself to give it a shot, it’s the only way to find out.”

And Wachowski said: “Dolls is a fever dream reflecting on assimilation and the investigation of trans identity. [I’m] so proud to be part of this beautiful, weird, striking debut.”

Pulitzer-Prize-winning Susie Ibarra composed a score for the film.

“Geena’s script and directing bring visuals, sound and music into a beautiful interplay that creates a unique narrative,” Ibarra said. “I am honoured to collaborate on this unapologetic and much-needed story of transgender women characters in film.”

The word “doll” refers to a trans woman or trans-feminine non-binary people and is also used as a term of endearment. It has now entered the mainstream lexicon, thanks to the “Protect the Dolls” t-shirts worn by celebrities.

There has been no word on when Dolls will be released, but we’ll keep you posted.

Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    38·
    2 months ago

    Reminder that Pinknews’ owner wanted to stop trans content to make the site more appealing to a broader market because it’s “too contentious”.

    The workers at this company are constantly fighting him.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        18·
        2 months ago

        At a point in time when he was exerting editorial control over content until staff ran him out of that role he was calling the site the “Gayly Mail” in reference to the Daily Mail, when he was pushing workers to write shock-oriented clickbait content that was fatphobic and ableist.

        He is a real piece of shit and doesn’t view that site as by lgbt people for lgbt people but as being about lgbt people, he has always wanted to hit a broader audience than the lgbt niche and to do that by throwing lgbt people under the bus. Fortunately the workers at the company have always fought him and from what I can tell his attempts to redirect it that way have always failed, largely because the team itself is lgbt.