Hey there, podcast listener. It's ez. I just wanted to say that we're about to go on a little bit of a hiatus, which means that there won't be a podcast for maybe up to three months. Transmission is going through a transition, and when we come back in 2025, we're gonna have a fresh sound. We're gonna. Yeah, we're just prepping for a new generation of transmission. We've been doing this for three years, and I wanted to give a special thanks to all the people that have been involved with the production of the show over the last three years and where we're moving to. So shout out to Sev, Jay, Salma, June, Charlie, also known as Kai. Also want a special thanks to George, Shawn, and Gosh, I gotta remember everyone's names. There's so many people that have been involved with transmission. Anyway, love you all. Thank you so much for contributing. Special thanks as well to our one and only CIS person that does actually deal with our podcasts every single week and post on social media. Thank you, Tobye. He hasn't had a single week off pretty much for three years, and so we're all going to go and have a little bit of a hiatus if you'd still like to catch your transmission fixed, though. Don't worry. Although there might not be podcasts, you can head over to the four Zzzzzz website, four zz.org dot au, and you can listen back to our live broadcast, which will still be running for the next three months. So cheque them out. You can listen live from 09:00 a.m. every Tuesday morning, or you can listen back on demand on that four Zzzzz website. Love you all so much and thank you for supporting the show, and we'll see you after we have had all of our surgeries. Bye. At 4000 z, we acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we broadcast. We pay our respects to the elders past, present and emerging of the turbul and Jagger people. We acknowledge that their sovereignty over this land was never ceded and we stand.

In solidarity with them.

You're listening to transmission on four triple z, amplifying the trans and gender non conforming voices of Brisbane and beyond. Hello, hello. You're listening to transmission on four triple z. My name is Es. I use he him pronouns and I'm joined in studio by George and I.

Use they them pronouns.

George, it's me, the one and only George Levi. You may recognise George's work from the fortressed radiothon work. You may also recognise George from just being a general Z head, just being around.

Yeah, just that guy.

I'm here. Happy little dude. George and I are talking today about a film that we recently saw together by the king of the trans men himself, Elliot Page. Community appointed, of course. And the track. The film was called close to you. Yeah. Which is quite interesting. It's the first film where Elliot plays as a very consciously forward facing trans man in the role. The story is about a trans man who revisits his hometown. Facing family tensions, he reconnects with an old flame, rediscovering himself. His journey leads to self acceptance and potentially some newfound strength as well.

I feel like that's a fairly adequate description of the film as far as a little blurb goes.

Yeah. And we saw that on just like, just this week. So pretty recently.

It's true, because at the moment the new Farm Queer Film Festival is on at new farm cinema. So it is running through until the end of this weekend and there is so much on. So you should have a little look at the website, which can be just found on the five Star Cinemas website, the new farm location. And there's plenty going on.

Oh, yeah. They've got like the people's Joker as well. If you missed out on seeing that.

You should go cheque that out because it. Yes. So I think there was a Sunday and a Monday screening of the people's Joker and it is now done. But Veera Drew is an exceptional director and writer and put together one of the weirdest, most fantastical films. A beautiful sort of trans allegory told from the perspective of the Joker. And it is so weird and wonderful and wacky. So, yes, if you missed it, you should absolutely seek it out. Try and find it wherever you can. The. I don't know who owned the Joker. Is it Marvel or the other one?

DC.

DC. They were very unhappy that this film was made without their consent and it required quite a bit of sort of, I guess, legal massaging in a way to be able to get this film to be released. I went and saw an unofficial screening last year that was still very much not okay. To be shown when Vera came over to premiere in Australia for the first time is an absolute treat. And, yeah, the people's Joker really blew me away in so many ways. So this is now a year on and we've got the queer Film festival on now. At the moment, they're doing such a good job and we went and saw close to you on Saturday night. Interesting film style, I think.

Yeah. I have not seen a film it's actually like, it's the most classic. Elliott. Elliott Page indie, kind of abstract, artsy film. It's exactly how I imagine Elliot makes films, but also with director Dominic Savage. So who also was what was in the credits at the end, it was like Dominic did directing, story writing, narrative building.

I think when we were sitting in the sound, when we were sitting and watching the credits roll at one point. Yeah. When it came up for composition as well, I was like, geez, calm down, Dominic.

Dom, you're everywhere now.

Yeah. Someone who gets intrinsically, like, deeply, deeply involved in the projects that they're working on in the film set, writing, directing, producing, et cetera. And I think the sort of conversation around this film, which we were just discussing off air, is the use of a limited script and having more forward facing, like, improvisation, which can be really effective, and then other times can be really hard to follow when actors don't have a full script to work with in scenes that require a lot of nuance. So, yeah, super interesting. I had to think about it a lot.

We were crying a lot, too. Like, there's a lot of really emotive.

Oh, totally.

Yeah, I really forgot to bring the.

Tissue, and I love crying, but, yeah, it was pretty much openly weeping throughout several of the scenes and cried all the way home.

Yeah, it hit me in the soft spot, too. Like, I was like, yeah. Mm.

Yeah, yeah.

It's got lots of mixed reviews, though. So if you were to jump on Google and you type in, like, close to you Elliott page, you'll see that rotten Towers tomatoes is given a 65% IMDb, like, 4.4 out of ten. And the Irish Times are also mentioned with a 3.5. So it's like, average film. Slightly above or below average. I don't know. Depends on your take on it.

Yeah, totally. So worth the watch. And it is absolutely incredible to see Elliott on screen again in a feature such a big deal. It was one of those occasions where, like, yeah, seeing, you know, a body, like, quite like mine, I guess. But also, I was just like, damn, I have to start working out.

I was like, are you that jacked?

No, no. Elliot's like. But, yeah, there was a couple of sort of, like, amazing scenes where you're looking, and I was like, oh, my gosh, I have to work on my core strength.

Is that why you were mentioning that earlier? Yeah, core strength. Elliott Srivastava.

I've been thinking about it for three.

Days straight, and, yeah, it's an interesting film. We're gonna dive more deeply into it. Throughout the episode today. So we'll be chatting about close to you and then all the things that is brought up for us as well, because it's kind of a bit of a journey. And I think if you're gonna look at reviews online and you're like, okay, this is. I went and looked at the stats before we went and saw it, and I was like, okay, my bar is low. And then I watched it and I went. This hit me differently. But maybe that's because the people reviewing this aren't trans people. Yeah. And maybe they are, I don't know. But, you know, I think from my experience as a living and breathing trans man, watching this story hit me in a lot of ways. And I'm wondering how that translated to non transness. So how many genders are there?

I don't know.

I just got here. You're listening to transmission on four triple z. My name is Ez. I use he him pronouns.

I'm George. I use they them pronouns.

And surprise, someone else came into the studio.

This is Sean, your favourite abomination about town. And my pronouns are crashing your radio show without any notice.

She, her. Yeah. Shawn, welcome.

I'm really happy to be here. I honestly have no idea what's going on. So.

Yeah, we can tell you what's going on. Yeah, tell me what's going on. So George and I, this week, it was a bit spontaneous, planned, but also sort of spontaneous.

Spontaneous, yeah.

A spontaneous movie outing.

Yeah, it was a. We'd had intentions of going to see this film for queer filmfest that's happening in new farm cinemas, but had both forgotten that it was on. I was reminded at work by a customer who comes in, who reminded me that it was on.

So what you're telling me is that ADHD is a neuroprocessing disorder.

I actually looked at my watch and was like, oh, it's October. Like I had lost time.

And then Joe's like, az, it's on tonight. Did you want to go?

So it worked out perfectly. Yeah. The film in question is close to you. It is the Elliot Page film in collaboration with Dominic Savage. And we are sort of diving a little bit into, I guess, the semantics of it, but also, yeah, like the cinematography and the way that it was shot and the way that they put that film together. And so, yeah, the small amounts that we know of it based on the reviews that we have read and the articles that we have read in the two days in between seeing and doing this show.

And also it ruminating in my mind because I feel like it's really stuck with me. And that's usually a testament to a film that's either affected me.

Yes.

Which is deserving of recognition, unless it's really irritated me. And I can't stop thinking about how terrible it was.

No, no. I think this one is such a specific. The nuances of visiting your hometown or visiting home after your transition, especially a small town. A small town. And what that means for you. And the ways that so often when we are with family, we have an unfortunate habit of sort of regressing, defaulting back to old habits, defaulting back to old habits, to old feelings and to old behaviours, and how that affects, affects and impacts you. And so I really felt that. I really felt it a big way, which is why I was crying so much. Good nuts. Weeping did not bring tissues.

And there is that very much that gender diverse thing of, like, the wondering is the grooves in the record of my mind. Are they permanent? Will I forever fall back? Can I ever move out of them consistently to be a full person? So it's fascinating to hear that there's films that are talking about this deeply intrinsic thing about changing yourself and being able to maintain that change.

And also improvised. It was an improvised, which was a.

Mostly improvised dialogue, like a very loose script, which is so fascinating, so interesting. I think it worked really well with savages shorts that he's made, but it felt really interesting in a feature that was tackling such big things to have. And it's a lot of pressure on actors as well, to really deliver in such emotionally charged scenes.

Oh, yeah. Particularly, you know, there's a scene where it's a dinner and the family are all reuniting for dad's birthday. And Sam, who is played by Elliott, by Elliot Page. Sam is, you know, been estranged from the family for, like, four years, been living in Toronto, in the city, has come back, and, you know, there's some old partners of siblings that are just assholes, more or less, and then some of them are really lovely as well. So, you know, and there's all. How they interact together, but there's tension. And then, you know, you're all sitting around a table and everyone just falls back into the. You can see it. It was really like. Everyone falls back into their childhood self, like, growing up, like, what that house was all the siblings, Sam as well. And you're just like, oh, you're like, I felt myself really tense. And then everyone's prickly.

Oh, everyone's prickly. And you can feel it. It's so visceral out there. I'm, like, contorting in the chair while I was speaking.

I mean, I like to think that actors love doing that sort of shit.

Yeah.

This is their craft. This is the muscle that they train to be able to, in a moment, take a thing, feel it, direct it, elicit a response.

Yeah. And it does sound and I think as well, like, the movement between the actors and, like, the dialogue that did come out really hits. I think if you're a trans or gender diverse person who has had experiences with family that are not fantastic, this film will punch you in the Gutsdez.

Good as good.

Aunt should as good.

Especially if you, like, left home and then returned for some reason. I think that's definitely part of it. I also want to as a trigger warning for our listeners as well. If you do go watch this, it's. Yeah, okay. There is some transphobic stuff. It's not very heavy and violent. There's none of that at all. It's very social. It's very social. And it's a. The family overall, I'm gonna say, were really trying so hard to be supportive, and it was actually quite beautiful.

Yes.

There was a lot of supportive elements there, even though there was a lot of ignorance as well.

Yeah, I think.

Which is relatable.

Yeah, yeah, 100%. So I think, like, it wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't as stressful a watch as it could have been had there been, like, openly sort of like, verbally violent characters.

I guess that makes. I guess that's probably one of the ways in which defines how something that is sort of queer led or gender diverse led is that it sounds like it allows for a lot of nuance in that there is good, there is bad, and, you know, instead of things where it's essentially just trauma porn. Yeah.

Yes. I don't watch euphoria.

Yeah, the beautiful. The beautiful rune of. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the beautiful. Oh, no, I'm a beautiful rune of a trans woman. I am so gorgeous and stunning. But, like, why is the world so awful to me? And it's like, yeah, yeah. Literally complicated.

Making me think of Hunter Schaefer and Euphoria. And I'm like, yeah. But it's also like, one of my favourite characters was the dad.

Oh, incredible.

I think he did a wonderful job of just. It kind of gives me that feeling of, like, you know, oh, there's a dad who's really awkward about, like, oh, I don't. Okay. My kid is no longer my daughter. My kid is now my son. It's been four years, we don't really communicate. And then I'm like, okay. And so the dad is just very. He's very gender affirming. He's very sweet. He comes across as quite personable as well. I related to him as an audience member. I felt him being like, no, I love you and I want you in my life and I'm willing to do whatever that takes to have you here. And I think that was really heartwarming for me as an audience member and as a trans person to have this role played out in front of me and also to see how Sam was reacting, because totally Sam responding to all this. A lot of dialogue that I have most definitely heard in my household and watching Sam, and I'm like, oh, I'd be cringing and kind of irritated by this right now. But also the expectation of Sam to congratulate their parents on the bare minimum was also kind of a little tedious.

So that's Peter Outerbridge who plays the father, isn't it?

Yes.

Yes.

Guy, I love to see excellent character act.

His dad's name. Yeah. And, yeah, he did a wonderful job. Mum was good too. Miriam. She did a really great job of like.

Yeah, Wendy Crewson did a great job of sort of portraying a family member who has a habit of worrying. Well, the worrying, but also like, and, you know, we see this. We see this a lot. But that sort of like self flagellation when you misgender someone to the point where you as a trans person have to, or a gender diverse person have to then comfort. Comfort the person over and over again.

Heal their trauma for them. Traumatising you. God, none of us know what that's like.

It's. Yeah, hot tip.

Just move on when you, like, keep moving, correct yourself and keep moving through with a conversation.

Yeah, correct and move on. So I think having that experience with both of those parents or parental figures, it was really well done. I think those actors just bloody nailed it.

Yeah. And improvised. I think there was probably a lot of workshops that they did to have those relationships as well and the family dynamic and leaving Toronto and going out back to your country town to reconnect with family for dad's birthday. And you have all the elements there. And then the. The history with your siblings. You were close to some and not close to others, and then others are dating assholes you have to tolerate at the table. And there's all that dynamic that plays out and it's well worth watching. I do think that a lot of the film, there could have been more said with less actual film, there was a lot of time. I felt like there was fluffing around and just lots of landscapes and pondering. And the camera was on Elliot for really long periods of time as he was getting changed. I guess analysing and experiencing Sam and seeing trans bodies as well was really. Was a part of that.

Yeah, I think so as well. And I think it was sort of like that sort of slow cinematography of showcasing the world around Sam, which I think was done really beautifully, but did allow for some pacing problems later on when they were actually getting into the heart of the film. And then you're like, we are three quarters of the way through and we're just starting this.

Yeah, yeah, it did feel quite slow paced.

So what was the. Obviously, because, I mean, I haven't seen. Seen it. And I'm curious because, you know, I mean, other films that do detail the trans experience, the. The leering camera on. On trans bodies is. Has been an issue, obviously, in cinema. There's a few that we could point out. Sorry, Eddie Redmayne, that really sucked. But, like, how, like, the treatment of how they approach the fact that Eliot page, you know, has a body that is part of the public discourse and that as you see this body in these moments, like, is the. Is the. Is the treatment of that visually, cinematographically sensitive and kind and not leering in any way? Like, is that.

Yeah, I feel like the way that the camera moved worked with that sort of experience. I think, like, for me as well, it was just really important because I was like, you just missed. When we were first talking about it, I was like, oh, it's like seeing a body like mine. Mine's nothing that ripped but. And had great cheese on their abs. No, cannot.

Also, everyone's thinking about those abs.

That's what I was going to say. So that I was like, okay, well, you can take the camera off the abs now. I feel bad enough. Like, I'm like, yeah, it's kind of like me. That's awesome. But also, bloody hell. And admittedly, like, it was in that. It was in the setup where they did do those, like, long, slow, lingering shots.

Getting up in the morning.

Getting up in the morning to start this sort of like, journey home. And it didn't feature quite dramatically in any other way, which I think was like, aside from, like a brief moment at the end. But even in saying that, like, I still think it was, like, quite well done.

It was tasteful. It also, you know, Elliot Page plays depressed so well.

Good. Breathe. Yes.

And it's just.

I mean, I'm sure there's a wealth of experience to draw upon.

Yeah. If you've read his memoir, you can absolutely attest that he has lived experience.

Yeah, 100%. And I think there is that, like, something that I share, and I think that a lot of, like, people like us share, is that there is a deep despair in the time it takes to move through transitions or realisations or hurdles and struggles like that, which. Yeah. The loss of time is something that I think hits me really hard. I watched yesterday. I watched Will N. Harper. Oh, yeah. It is a documentary sort of written and produced by Will Ferrell alongside a bunch of other amazing, really, really amazing people. And Harper Steele's transition and moving through that and following her journey is. It was a tear jerker. I cannot talk about the last person.

That you would expect to be, you know, the vessel with which we have a story like this. I mean, I just can't look at him without thinking of him naked, screaming, snoop a loop from that bloody stupid film. But, like. And yet here we are.

Yes.

Oh.

As a fierce advocate, the depth of sensitivity and compassion.

Oh, it is just beautifully put together and I couldn't recommend it enough. It's on Netflix and it is just such a journey. And I think it was so interesting watching close to you on Saturday night and then yesterday sort of delving into the depths of will and Harper and having another sort of, like, trans story, especially someone who is transitioning later in life as well. And, like, the gravity of that is absolutely massive. And it. So it's just been a really nice couple of days of seeing, like, two totally different cinema graph, like, cinema styles with completely different, like, writers, like, and having, you know, the one totally different energy, too. Totally different energy. Especially. They're like old school SNL.

Yeah.

The sort of, like, humour underneath everything is so present, but, yeah, you still feel everything just as much as they do. And, yeah, I think it's. Yeah, it's really opened it up as far as, like, films at the moment, which is why I want to try and go and catch more cinema this week.

Hells yeah. What else is on?

There's a couple that I wrote down that I want to see for the remainder of this week. We've got the problemister, which is a comedy that was released last year featuring Tilda Swinton, which is already just a.

Huge clicking my ear everywhere.

I love Tilde.

That is screening Thursday night at 06:30 p.m. or Sunday at 115. But then we've also got t blockers which is a feature film directed by Alice Mayo. Mayo McKay, incredible trans filmmaker. Very, very accomplished for being 19 and having so many features and shorts under her belt. It is incredible. And so that is also on. Ijennae obviously did not write down when, because I have brain worms.

So.

Yeah.

So correct me if I'm wrong, t blockers is the. Is the speaking of brain worms the kind of zombie horror terfs film where young men are infected with some weird black ooze that turns them into rabid violence?

It's giving me manhunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Big man hunt energy.

And go watch the trailer. It's magnificent. It is also on streaming services at the moment, I believe. And the trailer absolutely gives you this baseball bat, swinging trans girls beating down turf monsters. It looks so much fun.

So streaming services. Yes, it is also screening this week, Thursday at 08:40 p.m. so that's at new farm cinemas. Yes. The blurb is when ancient parasites rise from beneath a small town, taking the most fearful and susceptible as hosts. A young trans filmmaker finds herself the only one who sense the possessed and rally the resistance before the horror escapes and spreads. Incredible.

I love the positioning that inadequate men are the most vulnerable in society.

It's very susceptible.

Thank you for just placing it out there. That's very nice.

We're gonna go to some music and we'll come back and we'll keep chatting some movies. Amplifying the voices of the trans and gender non conforming community of meandheen Brisbane and beyond. Transmission on four Triple Z brings you the latest in trans community news, music and events every Tuesday from 09:00 a.m. till 10:00 a.m. join our team of hosts for an hour of celebrating the unique perspectives of the trans community transmission Tuesday mornings from 09:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on four zzzzzz. You're listening to transmission on four triple Z. My name is Ez. I use he him pronouns.

My name is George. I use they them pronouns.

My name is Sean. You're abomination about town. And my pronouns are still figuring out what hell I'm doing with my life. She, her.

What you're doing right now, Sean, is we're talking about movies. So we're talking about trans films and trans representation. But mostly we've been talking about close to you, which is released with Dominic Savage and Elliot Page. A kind of like romance, but also returning to home after years of living in the city and transitioning. And there are so many changes. Something that we didn't touch on too much. But I'd like to mention was that there is actually a romance involved with close to you that does play into it a bit with. Her name is Katherine. She's like Sam's Sam being Elliot Page, old friend, old flame from high school, I guess.

Yeah. It's not explored that much, I think, as well. Again, coming back into that sort of improvised script, there isn't a heck of a lot of backstory. So there are still those open questions.

Oh, yeah, many open questions.

There's many, many open questions. But also it's just worth mentioning as well that Hilary Bach, who played our sort of, I guess, old flame, a really wonderful representation of a non hearing person where it is not about them being deafendeze. Loved that.

Oh, yeah.

Huge fan of that. I think it was really well portrayed and just important to see in features, especially like a queer non hearing person. So good.

Sure. Isn't it?

Sure.

Isn't it nice to see a disability not being a plot point or not.

Featured in any way, shape or form.

Trauma and not mentioned for the audience?

Yeah, it wasn't addressed. It was really subtle about the relationship between Sam and Catherine. Predominantly that focus.

Yeah.

And also all the obviously very confusing feelings that it brought up for both.

Of them, I think. Yeah. Experiencing someone returning into your life unexpectedly who was so huge for you and like such a sort of. I mean, teenage, teenage love and having not seen that person for 20 years and now they've, you know, been through this big transition and this big life change. So that felt so real. And es and I were talking off air about. Yeah, I guess the complexity of showing. Yeah. The sort of like the romance element of this film, which I didn't think needed. It didn't need to be there. But also it was really beautiful and I really liked it, but I also really struggled. Struggled with like the sort of, you've been back for 15 seconds and you're just like, hey, come away with me.

And now I'm really. Yeah. And now I'm really. Yeah. All swept up very, very get the U Haul sapphic.

So that that's accurate.

But it was a nice addition to. To supplement and also soothe a lot of the tension that was in the house so, you know, with returning home. So there was. Yeah, I think it was a nice balance, but let's just go with like, because we're almost out of time. I think that the movie was fantastic. It really pulled on my heartstrings. It did leave a lot to be desired, though. I do feel like there wasn't a lot of closure on a lot of things at the end.

Yeah, I feel the same way, but still just a.

Do you feel that was a deliberate choice or a deficit in the work?

Hmm, that's such a good question. I think that, like, I guess, yeah, in an easy world, you could just turn around and be like, oh, that's just a deficit. And that's, like, something that just wasn't tied up properly. But then there's a part of me that's like, well, I mean, when is shit like this really, like, tied up neatly?

It's true.

And our stories are ongoing, you know, these are but brief chapters that we.

Lesbian yearning.

100%. So much yearning, my goodness.

Should play some earning, Lisa.

Yeah. No, no, no, I think you're right. I think, like, it is. It is true and it is ongoing, and I think that's pretty well represented in the film, but.

Yeah, yeah.

Worth seeing, regardless of absolutely all the bits and pieces. Yeah.

Well, thank you so much, George, for coming in and chatting close to you and other films.

Easy peasy.

Yeah. New farm film festival is a queer. Film festival is still running as well. Go cheque that out. There's lots of. They've got lots of great stuff, some really fun stuff.

Yeah. So it's worth jumping on the website, on the five star cinema website, looking up new farm and then having a little look at their lineup for the week.

Yeah, get down to it.

I love that cinema. I used to live across the road from it years ago when it was derelict and, like, 20 years ago when it was just a shell. And then when I got renovated, I was like. I remember seeing. Yeah, I remember seeing a Marilyn Monroe double at them when they reopened it.

They're retro stuff.

Losing my mind.

Oh, my God. Anyway, get down there. Come on down. We're gonna head off. Thank you so much. You've been listening to transmission. Have a lovely rest of your day. Love you all. Goodbye.

Gotcha.

See ya. Thank you so much for listening to transmission.

See you next Tuesday night to 10:00.

A.M. on four, triple z.