CASTRATION MOVIE ANTHOLOGY I: TRAPS (2024)

dir. Louise Weard, 275 min. English language with English subtitles
Saturday May 24th

What if Berlin Alexanderplatz was set in the contemporary Pacific Northwest, and was also trans? Find out in the first volume of Louise Weard’s extraordinary Castration Movie Anthology: Traps. Chapter 1 of this 4.5 hour saga (it flies by trust me) centres on a young production assistant named Turner and his descent into inceldom, flowing into Chapter 2 in which Michaela "Traps" Sinclair, a Vancouver woman in trouble, and her friends navigate sex work, DIY transition and love. A freeform narrative anchored by the grounded interactions of fully developed three-dimensional characters and a vein of painful authenticity tempered with humour, Castration Movie is a film for our atomised times.

This may sound like an insular, inside-baseball trip but if you’re alive in 2025 and have tried to find human connection there’s something here for you. It’s also extremely centred around the kind of people who have contemplated surgery and/or know what transmaxxing means, so if you’ve ever sat awkwardly in the living room of a toxic poly t4t throuple while waiting to buy gear it may have special resonance for you. This is not a compromise or diminishment of experiences in the pursuit of a relatable, accessible story: Weard has located something so ephemeral and specific that if you watch it with the right kind of eyes it may realign you.

Audience Note: This film contains graphic content and unsimulated sex, among other things

DOORS 3:30, FILM STARTS 4PM