Most everything I saw at the festival this year was at least pretty good, with my favorite being the documentary Niñxs, about a trans girl in a rural Mexican town, following her from about age seven to her mid-teens as she navigates life, the pandemic, and becoming a bit of a TikTok influencer, or at least that’s her goal. It’s also not really like anything I’ve ever seen before, as the girl, Karla, collaborated with the film’s director on nearly every part of the movie, with a sort of running meta-narration throughout that involves the two of them figuring out what direction the whole film is going to take, what they think is important to say, and sometimes just random thoughts about whatever’s on their minds. In all honesty, I wasn’t even sure it actually was a documentary, so many of the scenes look like they might be reenactments of things that happened or are staged versions of Karla’s internal life, which would all make sense given just how involved she was in the making of the movie itself. The film’s director, Kani Lapuerta, is, himself, a trans man, and he said it was exceedingly important to him that Karla be able to tell her own story, because stories about trans people are so rarely told by the people themselves. What’s also remarkable is how supportive Karla’s parents are through everything, not remarkable because they’re supportive, but because most stories we see about trans people and their parents are much more fraught with difficulty and tension.
A few other highlights include the gorgeous black-and-white documentary Seeds, about generations of Black farmers in Georgia, which won an award from Tallgrass after already winning at Sundance earlier this year, and the harrowing, inspired-by-a-true-story drama Rosemead, which gives us Lucy Liu in a performance I frankly didn’t realize she had in her.
You can find all of my thoughts on this year’s festival here, and a handful of this year’s award-winners, including Niñxs, are playing on the festival’s virtual platform through Tuesday.
