The Subversive Artistry of Trans Latinx Filmmaker Sweatmother

Sweatmother (they/them) is a trans Latinx filmmaker and artist whose work explores queer bodies, dyke sexuality and otherness. They use experimental techniques and documentary filmmaking in collaboration with non-professional actors to create counternarratives from within their own communities and subcultures. This hybrid of moving-image experimentation runs parallel to Sweatmother’s own lived experiences and relationship to gender, body and trans socialization.

Moving visuals resonate, which is why Sweatmother feels a personal responsibility to create work that transparently captures their community. Their film Soft Exits was created with purposeful errors that are conventionally not acceptable. This decision was their way of rebelling against the traditional ways of filmmaking and was the start of them finding their own creative approach.

In this latest edition of our new video interview series Long Story Short, Sweatmother talks to us about chosen families, the punk movement and breaking expectations of being a perfectionist.

For more about the work Sweatmother discusses in their video, please visit these links:

• Soft Exits
• Kajillionaire [Miranda July]
• Tourmaline

Video edit by Carly Angeloni.