Victor XX

Director Ian Garrido Lopez

Cinéfondation, Festival de Cannes 2015

“Victor XX is a short film that talks about losing the fear of being yourself. Victor is a transgender boy who lives in a small village named Aguamarga, located in the South of Spain. Victor is faced with his fear of telling his family and girlfriend, who know him as a girl, that he feels like a boy. He ends up hiding this issue, and goes to the big city to live as a boy named Victor. The whole story talks about this predicament that Victor must face, and his decision to make his feelings heard about his gender.”- director, Ian Garrido Lopez

GFM:
What inspired you to to tell this personal story?

Ian:
Victor XX is mostly fiction, but the film is autobiographical. The emotional issues of the main character mirror my own issues and emotions, and I have dealt with these conflicts in the past, when trying to understand how I was feeling. Victor and I are very similar. I too grew up in a small village, and I was very afraid to voice the feelings I was experiencing. That was a stage of my life that I overcame, and I was able to let go of the fear. Shooting Victor XX allowed me to evaluate my own experience, and gave me the opportunity to explain to my close friends, family, the general public and even myself how I was feeling. Sometimes words alone cannot explain what you are feeling.

At the beginning of this process, my main purpose was to give people who had never faced this situation before or had never known about transgender identity, the opportunity to empathize. I wanted to touch the heart of the general public. Society needs to know about transgender identity, because there is a lot of ignorance out there. As everybody else exists, we exist, and one day, society will have to accept that.

GFM:
I understand that you cast the film primarily with local people who were non-actors. Can you tell us about Alba Martinez and casting her as your lead?

Ian:
Alba Martinez plays the role of Victor. I met her about a year and a half ago. I did a casting call for locals because I really wanted to shoot this story with people from Almeria. When I saw Martinez for the first time I knew that she was Victor. She had never been in front of a camera or even acted before, but she was amazing. And she is only 19 years old. I hope that her career starts now – she wants to be an actress.

GFM:
You raised funds for the film with the crowdfunding platform Verkami. What did you learn about crowdfunding from the experience?

Ian:
It was my second project on Verkami, and we raised €2200. Crowdfunding is a difficult way of raising funds; you have to work very hard towards your goal, and then you finally get to share what you want to do. You have to post your vision, and with this campaign, we needed to get the attention of transgender people. It can be difficult, but we made it, and I’m so happy about that.

GFM:
What can we expect from you in the future?

Ian:
I’m now shooting a documentary about my family, my position and how my family is faced with my transgender identity. It is something very personal. I made Victor XX as a drama, and now I’m making this uplifting documentary that has a very good sense of humour. I find it interesting that different points of views can be expressed by the same person, through two different genres.