Released in Spain on 12 June via Caramel Films, Miss Carbón [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Agustina Macri
scheda film] tells the true story of Carlita (Carla Antonella Rodríguez), a Patagonian miner who bravely fought to make her dreams a reality. The film is directed by Agustina Macri, an Argentine filmmaker based in Spain, who blends non-professional actors (transgender people and miners) with established names (such as Lux Pascal and Paco León).

Cineuropa: How does your second film tie in with your first, Soledad?
Agustina Macri: Both films go hand in hand. Miss Carbón feels like a natural and organic step for me. All my future projects will centre on women, and on real women. It's so difficult to build a career in film, and when you commit to telling someone’s story, you're accompanying that person for a long time. So, it's better to choose something that you feel in your heart and soul; that's why I never accepted commissions. In this case, during tough and difficult times, knowing that this film was showing Carlita's life and that it could change other people's lives, really kept me going.

When did you join the Miss Carbón project?
The first drafts of the script had already been written, with Carlita's guidance. In 2022, they contacted me. I fell in love with the story, and we started looking for a producer in Argentina. But it was Morena Films who supported us from Spain, even though the action takes place on the other side of the world.

The film had a largely female cast and crew. Would it have been a different film if it had been directed by a man?
Women are gaining more and more space—the current generation of Spanish female filmmakers is proof of that. Women bring a sensitivity and personal perspective. For example, in the operation scenes and how I depicted the body: a male director would have handled it differently. I also had conversations with the protagonist about the fact that she’s a trans woman and I’m a cis woman. Even with my own sensitivity, there was a small barrier between us. So imagine with a man, what that distance would have been like. After seeing the film, a girl said to me: “This film could not have been directed by a man”. We live in such a patriarchal and sexist system that a trans woman comes along with her superpower to hack the system. In the eyes of society, Carlita wasn’t a woman who managed to become a miner, because she was defined as a man. But she sees herself as a woman, she is trans, she dresses up as a man, and when the equality law comes into force, she changed her name. She even changed the broader mindset about getting breast implants. It's incredible!

There is a rather tough scene in Miss Carbón involving transphobic women.
These women were absorbed by the sexist system and when faced with a female colleague, they couldn't see her as one. This really hit me and it’s heartbreaking to see how the system can condition women into something like this.

There’s a strong trans movement in South America, such as the literary work of Camila Sosa Villada or the film The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Diego Céspedes
scheda film]. What is happening there?
We’ve lived for so long under heteronormative and patriarchal narratives, but suddenly something is starting to shift. Stories that were hidden in the shadows are coming to light. Now it’s time to reclaim LGBTQI+ and immigration issues, like The Settlers [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Felipe Gálvez
scheda film] did, which told history from a different point of view, not just the Spanish perspective. There are unresolved issues. Groups living in obscurity will continue to emerge, for instance, the Argentine film Simón de la montaña champions disability and won the Critics' Week award at Cannes. Now is the time for inclusion, but it’s not easy. Chile is breaking down long-standing conservative structures. Argentina is a country that persists: we were pioneers in gender equality and gay marriage laws. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a larger movement.

Finally, as your protagonist says about mining, did you dream of becoming a filmmaker before anything else?
No, I wish I had. As a child, I played football. I dreamt of becoming a professional athlete, but I loved cinema, which I discovered when I was 20. I then made my own kind of “transition” into the arts. My family came from a business background: I studied sociology and from there I jumped into documentary filmmaking. And my siblings followed in my artistic footsteps. And yes, in a way we are all Carlita. the beauty lies in “transitioning” from what you’re expected to be into who you truly want to be, letting go of other people’s expectations of you.