A documentary follows Herself as she examines identity, artistic autonomy, bodily transformation, and the limits of conventional gender categories.
Story Structure — 5 Plot Phases
The Camera And The Question
Herself questions the camera's interest in her and resists being treated as an object. Emails reveal her anxiety about filming and interviews.
Key Events
Camera Chooses Herself — Herself questions why the camera has chosen her as its subject. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Documentary setting
Unease With Investigation — Herself resists being treated as an object of investigation. Characters: HerselfLocation: Documentary setting
Questions Become Self-Confrontation — Herself admits that answering questions exposes things she hides from herself. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Interview setting
Emails Postpone Filming — Herself repeatedly postpones meetings with the filmmakers. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Remote communication
Home Recording Anxiety — Herself explains that recording at home makes her tense and anxious. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
A Home For Difficult Stories
The Interviewer reframes the documentary as a record of routines and uncomfortable details. Herself agrees to meet at home and begins discussing her life and family.
Key Events
Home Recording Anxiety — Herself explains that recording at home makes her tense and anxious. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
A Documentary Of Details — The Interviewer suggests focusing on routines and small details. Characters: Interviewer, HerselfLocation: Interview setting
Meeting At Home — Herself finally agrees to meet the filmmakers at home. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Home
Opening Up About Family — Herself speaks more openly about her life and family. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Home
Female Identity Emerges — Herself reflects on the emergence of her female identity. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
Becoming Through Art
Herself reflects on the emergence of her female identity and the separation from a former masculine persona. Artistic autonomy becomes both a path to discovery and a source of professional pressure.
Key Events
Female Identity Emerges — Herself reflects on the emergence of her female identity. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
Two Figures Remembered — Herself recalls when her female identity and former masculine persona were treated as different figures. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
Rejecting Obedient Conventions — Herself describes abandoning an obedient conventional path. Characters: HerselfLocation: Creative work context
Art As Self-Discovery — Herself connects her artistic process with self-discovery. Characters: HerselfLocation: Creative work context
Professionalization As Cage — Herself says professionalization can restrict her and consume her energy. Characters: HerselfLocation: Creative work context
The Body In Transition
Herself experiments with public and bodily expressions of identity, including clothing, hair removal, and naked photography. She considers breasts as a symbolic and personal reality while retaining uncertainty.
Key Events
Former Self Leaves Home — Herself leaves home dressed as her former masculine self. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
Giving Identity A Rest — Herself explains that she needs to give her female identity a rest. Characters: HerselfLocation: Public setting
Removing Body Hair — Herself identifies removing body hair as a powerful step in transformation. Characters: HerselfLocation: Home
Public Nakedness — Herself embraces appearing publicly and being photographed naked. Characters: HerselfLocation: Public setting
Breasts As Personal Reality — Herself considers breasts as a symbolic and personal reality. Characters: HerselfLocation: Interview setting
Beyond The Binary
The closing discussions address age, exhaustion, oppression, collective identity, and the limits of anatomical definitions. Herself acknowledges past homophobic harassment and affirms transgender people's full human worth.
Key Events
Identity And Gender Cages — Herself discusses age, exhaustion, oppression, and identity labels. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Closing discussion
Shame And Human Worth — Herself confronts past homophobic harassment and rejects ranking women by anatomy or surgery. Characters: Herself, InterviewerLocation: Closing discussion
Story Breakdown
Camera And Resistance — The documentary begins with Herself questioning the camera's authority and resisting objectification.
Questioned Subject — Herself asks why the camera has chosen her.
Objectification Anxiety — She resists being treated as an object of investigation.
Delayed Collaboration — Herself postpones filming until the Interviewer offers a less burdensome form of documentary.
Anxious Emails — Emails record repeated postponements and interview anxiety.
Home Meeting — Herself eventually agrees to meet at home.
Family And Disclosure — A safer interview environment allows Herself to speak more openly about her life and family.
Open Conversation — Herself becomes more candid with the Interviewer.
Private History — The documentary turns toward personal and family reflection.
Identity Through Art — Herself connects gender self-discovery with artistic independence and professional constraints.
Female Emergence — She reflects on the emergence of her female identity.
Creative Autonomy — She describes leaving an obedient path through creative work.
Professional Cage — Professionalization consumes energy and creates restrictions.
Former Persona — The film examines the distance between Herself's present identity and her former masculine persona.
Two Figures — The two identities were once understood as different figures.
Identity Rest — Herself dresses as her former self to give her female identity a rest.
Embodied Transformation — Herself explores bodily presentation, public visibility, and the meaning of breasts.
Hair Removal — Removing body hair becomes a powerful first step.
Naked Visibility — She embraces public appearance and naked photography.
Breast Questions — She considers implants while questioning conventional bodily expectations.
Gender And Society — The closing reflections challenge gender oppression, rigid labels, and anatomical ranking.
Social Cages — Herself argues that transgender people challenge gender formulas.
Labels Unite Divide — Identity labels can create solidarity but also division.
Ethical Reckoning — Herself confronts past harm and concludes with an inclusive view of human worth.
Past Harassment — She expresses shame about past homophobic harassment.
Beyond Anatomy — She rejects ranking women by anatomy or surgery.
Transgender Dignity — She affirms transgender people as fully worthy human beings.
In this film, Laerte conjugates the body in the feminine, and scrutinizes concepts and prejudices. Not in search of an identity, but in search of un-identities. Laerte creates and sends creatures to face reality in the fictional world of comic strips as a vanguard of the self. And, on the streets, the one who becomes the fiction of a real character. Laerte, of all the bodies, and of none, complicates all binaries. In following Laerte, this documentary chooses to clothe the nudity beyond the skin we inhabit.
