Photos courtesy of David Magdael & Associates, Inc.
The lack of diversity in filmmaking means that many films only reflect one group of viewers, and leave others with little representation or stereotypical caricatures if any. One solution is to create a story centered directly around disenfranchised, often forgotten groups. Afuera, directed by Steven Liang and written by Steven Canals and set in Los Angeles, tells the story of an undocumented transgender Latina woman who becomes a sex worker. She makes this choice out of necessity and soon her disapproving boyfriend gives her an ultimatum that sets a chain of unexpected events into motion.
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In the trailer, the viewer gets snippets of the woman’s struggles: her boyfriend’s plea for her to cut back on her sex work, an aggressive encounter with a man asking for his money (presumably a pimp) and a conversation with two other women on the street suggesting she find work elsewhere. “But who will hire her without papers?” one of the women asks. This question gets to the crux of Afuera. The story hit home for actress Jennifer London, who is making her acting debut with the film.London tells The Creators Project, “There are girls that are just trying to be a part of society; girls that are pursuing their dreams; girls that make mistakes just like every other human being; and girls that have many different issues in their daily life. But even with that they are trying to be accepted just the way they are.” It’s that reality that London feels is extremely difficult for many people to talk about.
“Our society is very judgmental and to me the hardest thing about playing a trans sex worker is when I am being judged by girls from my own community,” writes London. “It’s hard to make some girls understand that there are thousands of Jennifers living or working on the streets, or suffering discrimination in jail, or immigration detention centers.”The absence of these stories in filmmaking, and a lack of diverse representation, motivated Liang to make the film. According to the film’s official website, all the transgender characters in the film are played by transgender talent; 65% of the cast are people of color; 54% of the cast are women; 34% identify as LGBTQ.
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“Growing up queer, working-class, and Asian American, my story was virtually invisible in media representation,” writes Liang. “ I started making films to tell stories that fully-embraced the plurality, diversity, and complexity in my community. That is my unique vantage point as a storyteller.”A Human Rights Campaign Foundation survey from 2012 found that 87% of LGBT Latino youth “hear negative messages” from cultural means—internet, school—with 39% of that being from movies, TV, and radio. While a 2013 study from GLAAD found that only 16.7% of 17 major studio releases featured LGBT characters let alone transgender or non-white.In Afuera, the lead character, Jennifer, is not only transgender, but she is undocumented, and Latina. Liang writes, “There is a universality to that specificity in her unique character, and a universality grounded in this love story, that I think will really resonate with audiences.” London hopes the film “touches the heart of somebody, someone with possibilities to help all the Jennnifers that are alone in this country living or working on the street.”
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