CAUGHT (CAER) is a collaborative documentary using fictional as well as mainstream observation filmmaking methods to express the struggles for recognition and justice of trans Latina women working in the NYC sex industry. The film is the result of the collaboration between Nicola Mai and the Transgrediendo Intercultural Collective, a grass-roots association defending the rights of trans Latina migrant women in Queens, New York City. It is also a tribute to the work and legacy of Lorena Borjas, the mother of Latin trans women living in Queens, who was one of the first victims of COVID-19 in New York in March 2020.
Humans of Film Festival and LGBTQ Humans of Amsterdam are proud to announce that we are once again collaborating with the fantastic Alejandra Ortiz as our film curator during Queer & Pride 2024. Together with her we have selected three films that we will show during the Queer & Pride film program, which runs from July 8th to 14th, 2024. The entire Queer & pride program runs this year from July 3rd to August 3rd, 2024. The film Soft (2022) can be seen on July 10 in LAB111, and the films Caer | Caught (2021) and Uyra (2022) can be seen on July 14th, together with a singing performance by Agnes Geneva, in Het Ketelhuis. Alejandra Ortiz will also moderate discussions with intriguing panel members immediately after the films, more information will follow soon.
July 14th, 2024 | 17:00 | Film screening at Het Ketelhuis: Caer | Caught (2021) + discussion with Alejandra Ortiz
During the Queer & Pride film program we show Caer | Caught (2021), a film by Nicola Mai, in the Het Ketelhuis cinema from 5:00 PM on July 14. After the film, Alejandra Ortiz moderates a panel discussion with panelists Dora Melkosian and Misha Francia Blanco.
After the film and the discussion, you can attend a singing performance by Agnes in the café between 18:30 and 19:00. Our next film Uyra starts at 19:00.
Synopsis: Caer | Caught (2021) | 61 min + Panel discussion 25/30 min
CAER is an experimental documentary that uses fictional and non-fiction film techniques to express the struggle for justice of transgender Latina women working in the sex industry in New York.
Panel discussion: From New York to Amsterdam; Echoes of migrant realities
A conversation about how the realities of transmigrants seem to mirror each other around the world. Common challenges and strategies to make things better for our communities.
- Moderator: Alejandra Ortiz, writer (her book: “The Truth will set me Free”), grassroots activist, curator and jury member of Pride Photo 2024
- Panelist: Dora Melkosian, trans activist and social worker from Armenia living in Amsterdam.
- Panelist: Misha Francia Blanco, Nicaraguan trans activist and asylum seeker, currently living in a Dutch asylum seeker center
Director Bio
Nicola Mai is a filmmaker, ethnographer and sociologist. His films focus on the experiences and representations of migrants working in the sex industry. They aim to bring their complex decisions, priorities, and trajectories at the centre of public debates, increasingly framing them as either victims or perpetrators of trafficking thereby ignoring their complex realities and needs. Inspired by Jean Rouch's ethnofictions, Nicola Mai developed a participatory, creative and collaborative filmmaking methodology transcending the distinction between fiction and non-fiction, participation and observation, knowledge and emotions. By combining collaborative fictional methodologies and mainstream observational filmmaking his films involve marginalized migrant groups and individuals in the self-representations of their complex experiences of self-realization and exploitation in the sex industry.
