To be Brandon (Scene 1), 2019, 4:06 mins
To be Brandon (Scene 2), 2019, 6:58 mins

During my artist residency in Brighton, the unofficial “gay capital” of the UK, a lot of questions were on my mind – what does it mean to talk about hate crime here? How does oneself play an unfamiliar role? To explore these questions, I put up an open audition and invited the gender-queer community to play the important and traumatised character of Brandon in “Boyz Don’t Cry”.

The movie is based on the story of Brandon Teena, who adopts a male identity and attempts to find his true self and love in Nebraska. Unfortunately, he becomes the victim of a hate crime. This film was premiered in 1999. It is one of the classic queer movies that initiated the discussion of the trans identity.

https://both-sides-now.org/2019/06/nicole-pun/