Casa Roshell

Casa Roshell

NAME OF FILM: CASA ROSHELL

DIRECTOR(S): Camila José Donoso

GENRE: Documentary Film

SYNOPSIS: Roshell Terranova, 51, is the co-owner of Club Roshell, a transgender club on an unassuming street in Mexico City that holds “personality workshops” for its clientele, offering tutorials on makeup, costumes, heels, and other accessories. A “safe space” in the sincerest sense, the club allows men to eschew the limits of macho culture, push the boundaries of their own gender, and, as Roshell emphasizes in an address to the club’s patrons, to own their identities and desires, to feel pretty and less alone. As with her previous feature, Naomi Campbel (an Art of the Real 2015 selection), Camila José Donoso’s richly detailed film immerses itself in its world, mixing digital, 16mm film, and even closed-circuit TV footage to locate a glamorous utopia within the confines of the club.