Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner's FVU-commissioned film Tgirls Make Music (2026) screens at Showroom Cinema on Thursday 23 July (7pm) as part of Freak Film Club!
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 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.
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 transpeople document their lives - approaching transgender history as something lived, messy and continually in progress.
Double-Bill: This short film screening is followed by queer cult film I Saw The TV Glow. Tickets sold separately.
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Tgirls Make Music (2026) has been commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella as part of FVU New Takes. FVU New Takes is supported by Jerwood Foundation. Exhibition partner: Arnolfini, Bristol. FVU and Arnolfini are supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
