It Was the Dog That Saved My Life

“We transgender are the revolution!” Indianara Siqueira, trans activist and politician, admonishes her political party for ousting her days before the 2018 Brazilian national elections. In the same election cycle extreme-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro is a forerunner for President of the Republic. Indianara is the ‘mother’ at the head of a homeless shelter and community center for trans sex workers called Casa Nem in Rio de Janeiro. Casa Nem is a squat, and facing the threat of eviction, Indianara occupies a colonial palace nearby to bargain with the city to save the house.

Unsure of her place in her Italian American, Catholic family, Summer, a trans dancer from Staten Island travels to Italy, where her grandmother emigrated from. There, she discovers an ancient transgender people, the femminielli. As the journey unfolds, Summer stumbles into an unexpected heartbreak that begs the question: what does it mean to be loved and to belong?

Join the sisters of the House of Bushwig as they launch a new drag festival in Bushwick, Brooklyn, joining a long historical tradition of drag arts sub-culture in New York City. Get a glimpse of their joys, their struggles and their culture as we delve into the world of Brooklyn drag in 2013.