It’s the hilarious trans 1990s breakfast TV show you didn’t know you wanted asking one simple question: “What top did you want to wear after top surgery?”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY BFI FLARE
Could you tell us a bit about what inspired you to make this film?
The idea for TOPS came from a quite simple place. I wanted to wear this new top I’d bought but I knew it would look better on me sans tits. So it became my post-op-top and stayed in my drawer. But not content with just leaving it there, a voice mimicking a late 90s/early 2000s trash TV presenter kept spinning around my head, asking me a question: “What TOP would you wear after TOP surgery?” And so I followed my nose and here we are…my first feature!
What is the key message you hope LGBTQIA audiences take from your film?
There’s some quite dark anti-trans rhetoric in the UK right now. Humour has always been a comfort for me and I think it’s more important than ever that Trans people still get to have a laugh. There’s also some really solid practical advice and insights around top surgery which is great and super useful. You don’t really get to see this subject matter talked about in this way, fun and tenderness are really intertwined. So I guess I would want people to come away feeling like they’ve had a laugh and it’s been a good way to spend 69 minutes.
What are the main themes that your film explores?
The question “What top did you want to wear after top surgery?” is such a ridiculous line to hook a film on and I think that’s why it works. It’s amusing from the get-go. What I hope people understand is that it’s about exploring the four really interesting people we meet and how top surgery impacted them all. There’s tenderness and vulnerability, as well as chaos and a plastic bag of dicks. Running through it all is my character’s desperate desire to be loved and make a new trans friend!
Also, there wasn’t this style of TV featuring trans people (in ways they’d want to be anyway!) when Rubie Wax was rummaging through people’s drawers, or Changing Rooms was wrecking people’s kitchens. It was fun to go back and remake what a documentary about trans people is using the language of telly I grew up with.
What is your favourite line or scene from your film?
My character is sitting on the sofa with Elliot, my third interviewee, and it’s all quite an awkward exchange, silences, tumbleweed, that kind of vibe. My character is just beyond desperate to make any connection at all with him and at one point they start talking about being from the North/Midlands and Elliot just turns to my character and bluntly says “Well I’m not a miner, if that’s what you’re thinking”. I just find it hilarious.
The whole sofa scene was improvised and in total, it’s about 10 mins – but we had to cut it right down. I just loved it, it was so much fun to film and just felt really Northern/ Midlands and just reminds me of that humour I get from my family. Honestly, though there is so much I could say all the people in it are just really special and I just absolutely lucked out with everyone involved.
How did you get into filmmaking and what has been your biggest challenge in the industry?
I worked in TV after going to uni at Manchester Met but I just felt too weird to be in that world back then. I worked as a care worker for a while and then found an artists’ community at Islington Mill in Salford. I started making art and art films and moved to London a while ago now but it’s all circled back around to me making films. I was made to feel like I was a real weirdo back when I worked in the TV industry all those years ago and now I’m like yeah I am weirdo – of course! So I guess the main challenge for me has been not fitting in and that might be to do with being queer, trans, class etc. But despite that, I’ve always kept making stuff by hook or by crook – I’ve learnt the hustle. It’s just so important to have an artist/film community around, so we can support each other.
Why is LGBTQIA representation in film so important in 2024?
I think it’s important for people to be able to see versions of themselves that are nuanced, complicated, and strange across a whole plethora of genres. Different voices and identities finding their spaces, pushing boundaries, breaking rules and creating new ones which can be broken again.
Why are events like BFI Flare which centre LGBTQIA films so important?
As a global queer festival, you can be seeing films from all over the world which is really special. By bringing Hollywood stars together with people like me, you get a whole range of talent and voices. Honestly, I’m so excited to explore some of the shorts and feel so privileged to be alongside some fantastic creatives!
This year’s Flare is split into the themes of Hearts, Bodies, and Minds. Do you have an LGBTQIA film which affected your heart, body, or mind?
How can you answer this with one film? I refuse! I’ll answer it according to these categories. For Hearts, it’s got to be Bottoms because wow it’s so good to see something light-hearted, weird, hilarious and with the best actors – Ayo Edebiri say no more! For Body …. Boys In The Backyard by Annette Kennerley because it’s 22 minutes of pure joy, it draws you in, its concept is so simple, two trans guys talking about their daddy/boy relationship, tomato plants and just life. It’s stayed with me forever.
Mind would be Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman because it’s a classic! An inquiry into the history of Black and queer women in Hollywood, playing with fiction and nonfiction. A kind of documentary/romantic comedy. I’d urge everyone to watch it. It’s brilliant, as is Cheryl Dunye – she’s someone who’s just kept going and kept making films.
What do you hope to see in the future of LGBTQIA filmmaking?
More funding, more opportunities, more weird shit, especially films that have some humour to them!
TOPS will be showing at BFI Flare on Sunday 17 March at 18:15 and Saturday 23 March at 11:00. For further details go to the BFI Flare website.
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