The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation is appealing to the Tribeca Film Festival to pull the transgender comedy Ticked Off Trannies With Knives from this year’s lineup.
Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives follows three transsexuals who exact revenge on men attacking and murdering some of their friends. Trannies will screen at Tribeca next month, but GLAAD accuses the film of misrepresenting the lives of transgender women and claims the characters are caricatures “written as drag queens.” The organization also objected to the use of the word “trannies.”
Tribeca organizers have no intention of yanking the movie from the schedule, and responded with this statement: “The filmmakers provided a copy of this film to GLAAD in February, and for weeks the organization had been supportive to the filmmakers. In fact, GLAAD representatives advised the film’s producer, director and cast on how to describe the film to its core constituency.”
In the official online listing for the comedy by Israel Luna, the film is described as a “campy homage to the exploitation films” in which “a group of transgender women are violently beaten and left for dead,” but then “the violated vixens turn deadly divas.”
Hundreds of opponents of Trannies have developed a Facebook group called “Boycott ‘Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives’ at the Tribeca Film Festival.”
The Tribeca Film Festival was co-founded by Robert DeNiro in 2002 to revitalize Lower Manhattan after the 9/11 terrorist attack. This 2010 fest will host the world premiere of Shrek Forever After.