2019. Documentary. 93 min. NR.
AAFF Presents Goes Online! Join us as we kick off our 2020 series with Why Can’t I Be Me? Around You - this year’s winner of the \aut\ FILM Award for Best LGBTQ Film at the 58th Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Albuquerque’s Rusty Tidenberg, an auto mechanic and drag-racing aficionado, who shocked friends and family by coming out as trans. Followed for eight years by filmmaker Harrod Blank, Rusty guides us through the aftermath of her transition, as growing acceptance among her straight-talking Southwest community still doesn’t ease her romantic and professional woes. Interwoven with lively tales of gender-nonconforming individuals on the art car circuit, Blank’s film is a sensitive and unpredictable love letter to people who fight to be unapologetically themselves.