Interview with Claudia Morgado Escanilla

Producer/writer/director Claudia Morgado Escanilla took home the PlanetOut Short Movie Awards Grand Prize for "No Bikini," a delightful -- and truly amazing -- short film about a little girl who abandons her bikini top and spends weeks in swim camp passing as a boy.

As the Grand Prize winner, Escanilla takes home a $10,000 cash prize -- the world's largest cash prize for a LGBT film competition -- and her film will screen at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival this April (all winning films will screen in Miami).

“I had a sex change once, when I was six or seven years old.” The opening line of No Bikini introduces us to a young girl who defies convention during her summer swim class. Filled with humour, this film is less about defining one’s gender than it is about discovering personal strength.

Escanilla is a Vancouver, B.C., filmmaker born in Santiago, Chile. We recently spoke with an excited Escanilla about the film, winning the Grand Prize and her future as a filmmaker.

"No Bikini" is incredibly original. How did you come up with the idea? Was it autobiographical?

I wish I could take credit for the idea, but about 10 years ago I read the short story "No Bikini" by Ivan Coyote. In 2004, I contacted her to get the rights. It was great to work with Ivan because she encouraged me to make it my own, went with the changes I made as I was writing the script; plus we collaborated on the VO, which she recorded.

Read the full interview here.

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