"Maria Luiza", a documentary directed by Marcelo Díaz and produced by Diazul de Cinema, will be screened at TranScreen, a transgender-themed festival that takes place between May 30 and June 2 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The work portrays the first official case of a transsexual military woman in the Brazilian Armed Forces.
Maria Luiza was born in Ceres (GO) as José Carlos, but she never recognized herself as a male figure. When he turned 18, he did his military service and joined the FAB, where he worked for 22 years as a corporal. While serving in the area of aircraft mechanics at the Brasília Air Base, he revealed his desire for a sex change. After many stints with doctors and psychologists in the Air Force, in 1998 she was diagnosed as transsexual and, in 2000, the command decided that she should retire with half the salary she was receiving at the time. So, she asked the Public Ministry for help and began a long process to recognize her identity as a trans woman. In 2005, she had the reassignment surgery, and in 2007, she corrected her gender and name in civil documents. Only a year later, his new military identity was issued as Cabo Maria Luiza, a fact that had never been seen before in the country.
In Brazil, the feature was screened at the latest edition of the É Tudo Verdade Festival and is expected to debut on the commercial circuit in the second half of 2019 by Olhar Distribuição. At the Dutch Festival, it is part of the program "Brasil em Foco" and its exhibition is confirmed for the 30th of May. Díaz's first feature film, the film was selected for DOCMontevideo Meetings 2018, DOC SP 2018 and LAB DOC Impacto 2018.
TranScreen is a festival made by and for transgender people and their supporters. It features in its programming a range of films from different cinematographies that debate the transgender gender and other issues that intersect with this experience, such as identity, race, age, nationality or tradition.