Being immersed in a visual culture requires to tension the audiovisual representations of our experiences as trans* people, in order to understand how these images are essential components in the construction of our bodies within the collective imagination. Since these experiences are based on the embodied practices of dwelling outside the cis-hetero-norm, their representations must take into account the tacit registers of what entails to incarnate queerness. With this aim, we will delve into the politics of trans* representation present in the documentary Travesía Travesti (Nicolás Videla, 2021). In this multi-voiced story, transvestite experiences are introduced through a personal –of the director– and a collective –of a community of women– perspective, while being intertwined with the specific context in which this film was produced: in the midst of the Chilean “social revolts” of 2019. Here, there is a crossover between the autobiography of these women and the theory that critically analyzes the sociopolitical structures in which our queer bodies are inserted; thus, we can contemplate this motion picture as an autotheoretical exploration of the current trans*/ transvestite experiences and memories in Chile. Through an embodied gaze, Videla's work provides a sentient dimension to our bodies as signs within the collective imagery that socially, culturally and politically shape our lives.
Keywords:
trans, autoteoría, cine chileno, experiencia encarnada
Hannah Peliowski Dobbs, . J. Ángel. (2025). Travesía Travesti: La Mirada Trans* como Autoteoría. Nomadías, (33), 87–107. Retrieved from https://anuariocdh.uchile.cl/index.php/NO/article/view/77880
