WHEN I WAS A BOY, I WAS A GIRL

Goca is a transvestite in Belgrade, the capital city of a country where organising or participating in a gay pride parade is forbidden. She is raising a daughter who is really her niece. Although her eighteen-year-old boyfriend steals the money she risks life to earn as a sex worker, Goca still loves him and manages to retain her sunny, open-minded nature. On her thirty-ninth birthday she decides to celebrate her coming-out on stage in front of a live audience. And so she tells them the story of her life: When I was a boy, I was a girl.

IVANA TODOROVIC

 

Graduated from the Documentary Media Studies program at the New School in New York, holds a BA in Ethnology and Anthropology from University of Belgrade and has trained with the Paris-based Ateliers Varan. She was participant of New York Foundation for the Arts Imigrant Artist project 2010.

 

Ivana’s films are character driven and are informed by personal experiences of human instincts and modes of survival when dealing with trauma. Her intimate and emotional films tackle social issues such as gender and sexuality, homelessness, the education of Roma children in squatter settlements in Belgrade and youth gun violence in New York City.

 

Her films have won several awards and were screened at numerous international film festivals, including IFF Rotterdam, Traverse City Festival, Palm Springs IFF and were broadcast on The New York Times Made with Kickstarter series.

 

All of the films are geared toward promoting and producing social change and used in media campaigns, educational and NGO settings. Apart from making films, Ivana works as a director and lecturer. She has recently directed an episode of Al Jazeera Balkans serial “ Everyday Life Hero” for pro.ba production from Sarajevo,and was a speaker at TEDxAUK and gives workshops at universities worldwide. Currently, Ivana is writing a new film at the Saari Residence in Finland.

 

• Berlinale Film Festival, Germany 2013 
• Shorts and Documentary Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia 2013 — Best National Documentary film 
• South Eastern European Film Festival in Los Angeles, USA 2013 — Best Short Film 
• Dokufest, Kosovo 2013 Best Balkan Documentary Film 
• Thess Shorts Film Festival, Greece 2013 — Cinematic Achievement Award

 

Short Competition 2015