Watch
Watch newly commissioned pieces and key works from FVU's past projects.
Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner
Tgirls Make Music (2026)
We are excited to launch Tgirls Make Music (2026) by Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner on FVU Watch this month, one of six new moving image works commissioned as part of FVU New Takes.
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’. 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.
You can now read an accompanying essay by film programmer, trans historian and actor Jaye Hudson, exploring how queer and trans artists in the ’90s and early 2000s used low-budget media to challenge mainstream misrepresentation, often without institutional backing. Read HERE.
--
Tgirls Make Music will be on view at Arnolfini, Bristol from 4 April — 10 May 2026.
Audio description and captioning is available, please click the cogwheel button on the control bar.
Have you watched Tgirls Make Music, or engaged with any of the other works commissioned as part of FVU New Takes on FVU Watch? Fill out our Audience Survey to be in with a chance of winning a £50 Gift Card for Everyman Cinemas (UK-wide).
--
Tgirls Make Music (2026) has been commissioned as part of FVU New Takes, an FVU initiative supported by Jerwood Foundation. FVU is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
