TITE: Tops

CLUB 18+97 min

Synopsis

Documentaries about trans subjects have a long and heated history, reaching a boiling point in the era of exploitative talk shows and reality TV. But with nostalgic electro beats and Y2K visuals, TOPS bursts into the trans documentary canon as a tongue in cheek re-imagining of clueless 2000s British reality television.

Bright-eyed host Ames Pennington greets us with the confident announcement that they’re going to interview different people about their top surgeries — only nobody wants to talk to them. Alternating sarcasm and sincerity over four interviews with a powerlifter, a housing officer, an Essex filmmaker, and an occasional model, TOPS ambitiously unites comedy and clarity through earnest conversations on trans healthcare and the unavoidable silliness of baring it all on camera.

Undergirding the film is Ames’ gut-busting performance as a neurotic non-binary Billy no mates, a filmmaker trying to buck the trend of invasive trans documentaries… by making one. Ames’ delightfully self-deprecating performance subtly asks how trans people can make documentaries about our most sensitive subjects without mimicking an exploitative film history. In this case, TOPS opts to be just as chaotic as its MTV predecessors… but this time, it’s our kind of chaos.

This screening features fully subtitled spoken dialogue

PRE-FEATURE SHORT:

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