Tom / Trans / Thai is a short experimental film that approaches the silence around female-to-male (FTM) transgender identity in the Thai context by addressing tom and trans-masculine identities in Thai and Thai American communities and the transnational relationships between gender and language.
Interviews conducted with Thai and Thai American toms and trans-masculine people are channeled through the moving body in an effort to locate ourselves in the Thai landscape and create a new language for our kind of being.
Toms and Zees: Locating FTM Identity in Thailand is the article that accompanies the film; it outlines in further detail my research and interviews with participants and is available in Transgender Studies Quarterly Issue 1.3: Decolonizing the Transgender Imaginary (Duke University Press, 2014).
*Jai Arun Ravine is a writer, dancer, video artist and graphic designer. They are the author of แล้ว AND THEN ENTWINE: LESSON PLANS, POEMS, KNOTS; IS THIS JANUARY; THE SPIDERBOI FILES; and the director of the short film TOM/TRANS/THAI, which has screened in Bangkok, Berlin, Los Angeles and San Francisco, among others. They hold an MFA in Writing & Poetics from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School. A recipient of fellowships from ComPeung, Djerassi and Kundiman, they are a former Staff Writer for Lantern Review.
