AVEC TOI, J’EN METS PAS (With You, I Don’t Use One)
We featured bruce’s film at our event Testing Times – Tackling Transphobia, Stigma & HIV at 20th Century House in Soho Square.
We asked bruce to introduce his film. Here’s what he told us:
I’m a young transfilmaker, currently working for a french NGO that fights against aids and other STIs. I’ve been an activist for several organisations and I’m interested in health in LGBT communities. I also play football with a french lesbian and trans soccer team, Les Dégommeuses! I’m working on a documentary project about transgender and intersex people and sport.
“Avec toi, j’en mets pas” (meaning “with you, i don’t use one”) is a short safe sex movie that is part of a collection. The directors were asked to shoot a story inspired by an incorrect safe sex statement (for example “i only have sex with “clean” people”). The purpose of the movie is, of course to show how this statement isn’t accurate.
I wanted to do a movie about how we can react to some psychological pressure and drop our safe sex habits. Here the pressure is transphobia but it can be a lot of type of emotional blackmail.
What i wanted to do with this movie is to show a certain situation so that the public can think about it and prepare it’s own way to react to this type of “condom blackmail”. I wanted the public to think “ok, what would I do?” So, i didn’t want to do a moralizing movie: yes, we do mistakes but the thing is: why do we do this? how can we change it? I think if you think of a situation before it happens, then you have more keys to react in the way you want.
Last but not least, i wanted to show trans bodies, trans people, and i wanted to show how we can be part of gay communities too. So, it was really important to me to have this glittery dream and this happy ending. And maybe show that safe sex can be fun and sexy!