Fluid Gender Documentary
'My Kind of Girl'

My Kind of Girl (1992) is a short documentary portrayal of gender-fluid performance communities in mostly downtown New York City in the early nineties. In these post-Reagan, pre-Giuliani years homophobia, racism, sexism and censorship compounded an AIDS crisis. A longer, feature-length documentary co-production with transgender performers from the black and Hispanic communities could not be completed due to AIDS-related illness and deaths. The AIDS crisis wreaked havoc among black and Hispanic urban familial and performance groups such as the House of Xtravaganza (led by the legendary Hector Xtravaganza) en House of Lamour (including Consuela Cosmetic). The health crisis fuelled a wave of political activism (in the arts too) for sexual, gender and racial equity that remains relevant today. The documentary was shot on high-8 and the colors from this old analogue technology have disappeared over the years. The film led me into international HIV action-research and international health program management at the intersection of health, human rights and gender.