Sylvia Rivera

A short documentary film that delves into the life of Eleggua Luna, a karmairi-mokana-motilona Afro-Caribbean trans woman born in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to delve into the constant struggle that black, trans and indigenous people live in Abya Yala as a result of colonization.

In 1971, a group of students in New York City learning how to use the nascent technology of portable video interviewed Deborah Hartin for this documentary short. Having spent 20-plus years trying to conform to life in the body of a man, she followed her destiny all the way to Casablanca to receive the gender affirmation surgery that she had long yearned for and had attempted to self-administer in the past. Along with Esther Reilly (who was recently post-operative) and others in the transgender community, Hartin shares her story, revealing how the procedure had transformed her body, her life and her activism.

Stonewall veterans (including prominent trans activist Sylvia Rivera) and HIV-positive New Yorkers take up residency on the Hudson River piers as cranes raze vacant buildings for a new skyline.