Tgirls Make Music is a documentary about trans woman rapper and producer htmljones (Ishaani Ponniah), framed through the visual language of early-2000s television, 2010s internet aesthetics, and contemporary British culture.
The core of the work is an interview with htmljones hosted by trans woman and director Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner on the fictional ‘T4T (Trans for Trans) Network’, edited to replicate a TV talk show format and interspersed with htmljones' live musical performances. The conversations captured during the interview are intimate and direct, split up by regular bumper 'ad breaks’. Lucy’s animated idents recall the colourful and nostalgic bumpers seen on television networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon, but have been reworked through a modern day trans lens. The bumpers reference and subvert popular memes from the 2010s including Lolcats, Nyan Cat and Advice Animals, alongside more recent trans and queer memes like Girlkisser, Blåhaj and Catgirls. Lucy's British background is spliced throughout the film with imagery of English breakfasts, telephone boxes and UK road signage.
The film is shot on Digital8 tape and incorporates hand-drawn digital animation (Flipnotes), 3D animation, claymation, pixel art, digital VHS emulation, analogue glitch art, ASCII art, video compression, low framerates, posterisation and dithering. These techniques sit alongside one another, echoing the experimentation and freedom of early internet personal webpages.
Compositions by trans woman musicians Xploshi and Vylet Pony sit alongside htmljones’ performances, shaping the rhythm of the film and reinforcing its collaborative nature. Xploshi’s original bumper music evokes the futuristic ambient and new age music style from late 2000s to mid 2010s Nintendo consoles, such as the Wii and 3DS home menu music. Tracks used throughout the film from Vylet Pony’s ‘Love & Ponystep’ album take inspiration from 2010s electronic dance music, such as brostep and electropop, as well as 2000's Disney teen and folk pop music.
Tgirls Make Music also features cameos from well-known trans women Olivia Campbell-Cavendish LLB (Executive Director, Trans Legal Clinic), Eva Echo (Speaker, Educator & Activist) and Lucy’s friends and fellow filmmakers Chris Hale and Liadh O’Brien.
Across the work, questions of trans, lesbian and furry visibility, self-representation and cultural memory are held open rather than resolved. The work considers who is included in archives, who is left out, and how trans people document their lives - approaching transgender history as something lived, messy and continually in progress.