Title: Say My Name
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Juliana Chagas Gouveia
Starring: Selem Rufino Soares, Diana Conrado
Runtime: 1 hr 18 mins

What It Is: About a pair of transgender women in Brazil as share tell their life stories, scenes of violence and discrimination, of growing up, of being rejected and sometimes accepted and what that means to them. We follow as they continue to push and fight to legally change their names.

What We Think: A simple documentary, but I think there’s always room in the world for simple documentaries. If you are already familiar with the subject matter (aka, you stand as an ally or have been through these ordeals), then it’s likely you won’t get much more information than what you’ve already gathered. Nonetheless, it’s fantastic to hear these women’s stories, especially concerning that I’m watching from a non-local’s perspective. Much like Call Her Ganda, this works as a profile of these women as well as how their country has decided to handle them and many other trans people. According to this documentary–Brazil has horrifying numbers of trans people being murdered. That should be known. There are certainly also some profound moments to be had, moments that I’m glad I had the opportunity to see as they are such private matters and that was still insightful.

Our Grade: C+, A solid and simple profile of people who should have had their rights long ago. My largest critique has to do with its runt time which at first glance seems short for a feature, but for a feature is less than concise as many times I found myself wishing most if not all of the scenes were shaved down. Honestly this is yet another example of something that I think would easily be just as profound if not more so if it were just kept to a short’s run time, though in all obviousness I do think that people who (still) aren’t yet accustomed to the idea of transfolk and their needs should most definitely listen and watch to every inch of this movie as it is.