Review: “Castration Movie Anthology ii” and the horror of being perceived

What would you be willing to do to stop being watched?

By Jane Migliara Brigham | jane@theneedlenews.com

What if being trans wasn't the most important thing about you?  What if you could live in a way where it simply wasn't that big a deal?  How much would you be willing to give up to get there? This is the premise of “Castration Movie Anthology ii”, the latest piece in Director Louise Weard’s ever growing epic on transsexual life.  

Ever-growing, because it was planned as a single movie looking at different snapshots of trans life and failure to conform to gender roles, it has now sprawled out into two films with a combined length of 9 and a half hours, while only being half complete with its intended scope.

Rather than feel like bloated messes, these two films (last year’s “Castration Movie Anthology i”, and this year’s “Castration Movie Anthology ii”) feel like snapshots of real people and real cultures.  

The level of detail given to the main character’s lives is more akin to what you’d expect in literature or long running prestige television shows.  

The overbroad storytelling never feels like filler or meandering.  The movies are not carried by their intricate plots (both of which are simple and barebones).  

Rather, they excel because they are perfectly able to set the tone of what it’s like to live as a transsexual.  This tone does more to immerse the viewer than any plot ever could.

In the latest installment, the central question is “how do I live so that being trans is not the most important thing about me?”  The choice to set the story in New York City (and particularly in the heavily trans-populated neighborhood of Bushwick) is intentional.  

The city is full of trans people who picked up stakes from backwards parts of the US to settle alongside other trans people.  Even though the culture is better, and there is strength in numbers, they are all still trans in a world that seeks to make their transness their defining feature.  

As a result, many of them, including many people I know personally, choose to only interact with their own people where possible.

Our main character takes this to the extreme.  

Circle (Alex Walton) is a member of a trans separatist cult that isolates itself from the cissexual world.  The first two hours of the movie take place in a basement studio apartment inhabited by people looking to escape being perceived as outsiders.

All contact with the outside world is banned.  They are monitored at all times via cameras owned by the mysterious sponsor of the space.  The cult members aren't prevented from leaving by anything except their own fears of the outside.  

The closest thing they get to privacy are nude shower scenes and 1-on-1 talks with the cult leader through a computer avatar.  

The result is total surveillance, and a crabs-in-the-bucket mentality where everyone suffers together.  Anyone familiar with tenderqueer social dynamics will immediately understand how and why they tear each other down in the language of mutual support and empowerment.

The outside world proves to be little better.  

Circle never gets a single conversation where her transness isn't the center of attention.  Every single person who approaches her has something to say about the token tranny in their midst.  

Some exoticise her, some fawn over her, some fear for her, some lust after her, none care to understand her.  

The closest thing she has to a friend follows her around because she thinks Circle would be hotter as a boy.  The entire world has something to say about how she is living.

Circle never gets a single moment where she is not being perceived, and she always acts as if she has something to hide.  It's almost as if she is aware of the camera operator, and seeks to hide away.  

The judgemental eye of the outside world is never put on full display, but its presence is constantly felt.  

The unseen eye arguably has a greater role in the story than the protagonist or any single character.  Every trans character (and a few detransitioners) have to deal with constantly being perceived, even in their most intimate, vulnerable moments.

Perhaps it is all the more ironic that in 5 hours of runtime, we hardly learn anything about the protagonist besides her own name.  

We only get vague hints as to her past, and all of that comes from others commenting about her.  She spends most of the runtime in a dissociative fugue state, retreating into an inner world we never see -she hardly ever opens up, and the world around her gives no reason to do so.  

We the viewers are denied any knowledge of her, save the gossip and nitpicking of those claiming to help her.

I see far too much of myself in this film.  It was hard to watch because I had to relive all the way that I fear being perceived.  I've walked some of the same streets and taken the same public transit that Circle takes.

Hell, I know several of the actors that make up the separatist cult.  I know exactly why transsexuals might want to escape the unseen eye and hide themselves.  

I see my friends shunning the outside world for the safety of our own people.  I see us using disguises to avoid the judgement of others, whether going stealth or detransitioning.  

We are tired of being the center of attention, just as Circle is.  

Castration Movie Part 2 is a deeply unpleasant movie that happens to be my favorite thing I’ve seen all year.  From the first scene to the last, the viewer is forced to be an intruder into the lives of the characters, and is never wanted.  

There is no triumphant victory against the unseen eye, because the viewer is the unseen eye.  You are forced to be the very thing Circle is running from.

What would you be willing to do to make it stop?