“Transproofed”

Ava (Calpernia Addams) is a transsexual woman who has recently completed her transition. Her friend and mentor Joyce (Andrea James) has long advised her to get her apartment “transproofed,” a slang term for hiding all the evidence that she’s trans. This streaming video includes the movie itself, the music video for “Next!”, the storyboard featurette narrated by Andrea and the movie re-played with commentary by Andrea and Calpernia, played one after the other in sequence for a full 50 minutes of video! In Ava’s case, that’s a tall order: Ava came up through the club scene as a showgirl, and both Ava and her apartment are vibrant, sexy, and full of clues. Ava calls Joyce for a last-minute transproofing because her hot new boyfriend Mike (Joel Lambert) is coming over for dinner that night. Joyce races over to help Ava give the place an ‘Extreme Ho Makeover’ more in Joyce’s aesthetic: plain and non-descript. Joyce reminds Ava that passing as female means blending in and not drawing attention to yourself. Both Ava and her apartment are garish and flashy, and the two set to work making it look like a drab straight girl’s apartment. Set to the pulsing club single “Next,” they go from room to room, leaving no stone unturned: closets, medicine cabinets, bookshelves, and even the fridge. As Ava watches more and more of who she is being hidden from view, she starts to have second thoughts about how much she is willing to sacrifice to live “stealth,” where no one knows she is trans. Will Ava be able to walk away from everything that made her who she is and start fresh? Or will she risk losing another guy she really likes by telling him she’s trans?