Born With An Extra Rib

Queer | Art Prize Winner for Recent Work 2022
TRANSlations: Seattle Trans Film Festival Jury Award for Best TransGenre Short/Mid Length Film, 2023
Wave Farm Media Assistance Fund, 2023

Photos by Maria Baranova

Born With an Extra Rib is an operatic biomythography for the diasporic and dysphoric, longing to find a body & a place to call home.

A cinematic-performance ritual inviting the audience to be remade beyond colonial gender and genre, Born With an Extra Rib takes us on an intimate spiral of epic scale where we are able to mourn who we were and clear the way for who we are to become.

Born With An Extra Rib: The Film premiered at The Kitchen on March 17, 2022 as one-night sold out engagement featuring an installation, elements of the rituals used in the making of the film, and a live performance by STEFA* with a chorus of trans and gender expansive angels. 

The Team:
stefa marin alarcon | Creator, Composer, Co-Director, Co-Creative Producer, Film Editor
LILLETH | Co-Director, Choreographer and Co-Creative Producer, Film Editor
Nova Scott James | Filmmaker
Flor Tejada | Filmmaker, Colorist, Film Editor
Kelley Shih | Lighting Designer, Projection Coordinator
Lily Wen | Sound Engineer, Audio Mixer
Joseph Charles Viola | Stylist

Cast: STEFA* (vocals), GypjaQ Kai (vocals), S T A R R Busby (vocals), Miles Francis (percussion), Nicholas Jozwiak (bass), José Benjamin Escobar (keys, percussion)