Death and Bowling

X, an actor struggling with being pigeonholed into tragic transgender roles, has his world shaken after the death of the captain of his bowling league. Death and Bowling examines a community coping with loss and carries a biting critique of the type of identity-based suffering that trans characters have historically been expected to experience in film. Featuring a cast and crew composed primarily of trans people—including trans actors playing both trans and cis roles—Death and Bowling is a rare example of gay transmasculine intimacy and desire filtered through a lens of dreamlike, melancholic camp.

Like the feature it’s paired with, the preceding short How Not to Date While Trans features a trans protagonist defying expectations, this time through sharing calculated tactics for dating cis men as a black trans woman.

Total Runtime: 77 min

Content advisory: Subject matter contains depictions of suicidal ideation, homophobia, transphobia, and discussion of transphobic violence.