The TRANS IMAGE/TRANS EXPERIENCE (TITE) Film Festival is Ireland’s first festival entirely focused on trans and non-binary cinema. Screening a wide range of shorts from Ireland and abroad, 8 feature films, plenty of Q&As and a special workshop, TITE aims to shift the focus of trans filmmaking from representation to craft, championing trans and non-binary filmmakers and fostering lasting connections between artists and audiences. The first TITE Film Festival is set to screen in Smithfield, taking place at the Light House Cinema from 25-27 April.
Our friends, comrades and colleagues at the festival – which includes Film In Dublin’s own Olivia O’Ríada – have long been working on bringing a dedicated festival for trans and non-binary cinema to the fair city of film for some time, and last week at Street 66 the full programme was launched ahead of next month’s screenings, and you can browse the full selection of films now in their online programme.
From award-winning Sundance darlings to low budget DIY extravaganzas, soft-spoken dramas to hyperpop explosions, thirty-two Irish premieres to a special archive screening from 1989;
whatever you picture when you think about ‘trans film’, think again.
The three days of film kicks off on Friday 25th April with intersex feature PONYBOI, screened in partnership with the TITE’s festival friends at Red Umbrella Éireann. On Valentine’s Day, in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker is working at a laundromat with his pregnant best friend, Angel. He spends his nights with Vinnie, his secret lover and pimp who is also the father of Angel’s child. However, when a drug deal goes bad, he finds himself on the run from the mob, a neo-noir starring River Gallo expanding their featurette in their narrative feature debut alongside Dylan O’Brien (Saturday Night),
Victoria Pedretti (The Haunting of Hill House), Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), and Indya Moore (Pose).
The festival also features Korean film Peafowl, which centres on steely Shin Myung., a fierce trans queen on the Seoul nightclub scene who reconnects with her Buddhist heritage, in this defiant dance debut. Presented in partnership with the Queer Spectrum Film Festival.
TITE concludes on the Sunday with Stress Positions, directed by Theda Hammel. Terry Goon is keeping strict quarantine in his ex-husband’s Brooklyn brownstone while caring for his nephew — a 19-year-old model from Morocco named Bahlul — bedridden in a full leg cast after an electric scooter accident. Unfortunately for Terry, everyone in his life wants to meet the model.
As part of the festival’s ambition to create new opportunities for trans filmmakers, TITE will be hosting an remote workshop, with the award winning The People’s Joker director linking in online to discuss craft, creativity and international collaboration. This workshop will take place in the Outhouse Red Room (accessibility info) on April 26th at 17:00. Participants will attend in person and chat with Vera Drew over video call. Spots are limited, but interested film fans can apply HERE.
Tickets for the films of the TITE Film Festival are available now via the Light House website. Tickets are €14 standard and €11 concession, and trans and non-binary people attending the festival may avail of concession tickets. Limited free tickets for trans people in financial need are available from the festival on a first come, first served basis – contact info@tite.ie for details.
The full schedule of TITE 2025 is listed below. Stay tuned for more on the first Trans Image/Trans Experience Festival from Film In Dublin.
FRIDAY 25 APRIL
19:00 Welcome Reception
20:00 Ponyboi (Opening Film)
SATURDAY 26 APRIL
12:00 Image shorts + Q&A
14:30 Dog Movie & Friends + Q&A
17:00 Soft
19:30 Intimacy shorts + Q&A
22:00 Spirit Riser
SUNDAY 27 APRIL
12:00 Experience shorts + Q&A
14:30 Sex Change: Shock! Horror! Probe! + Q&A
16:20 TOPS
18:15 Peafowl
19:30 Closing reception
20:30 Stress Positions (Closing Film + Awards)