(Screenshot from “Pete” trailer on Vimeo)
SANFORD, Fla. | Central Florida native Pete Barma’s autobiographical, animated short film, “Pete,” will be playing in the Love Your Shorts film festival in Sanford Feb. 11.
Barma worked with her wife, Bret Parker, to put together the short film. It is a retelling of a story from her childhood, growing up as a nontraditionally masculine girl in the 1970s.
Prior to “Pete,” Barma and Parker worked together on their 2019 feature length documentary, “Through The Windows.” They had such a great time working on the documentary that they knew they would want to work together again. Parker, who worked at Pixar for 26 years, has a history in the animation field and provided the skills and resources needed to create an animated short film.
“Pete and I co-wrote the story together,” Parker says. “From storyboarding the film and then getting that into editorial, I’m really with the film, honing it from the words on the page to the images, helping with the design of the characters and the look of the film.”
The film is a recount of Barma’s decision to join her community’s all-boys little league baseball team. In the film, she explains that she goes by “Pete.” She plays with the boys and is viewed as one of them. When Pete is discovered to be a girl during a baseball game, the parents in the audience are outraged.
“We really intended to also show who usually messes things up,” Barma says of the film. “We tried to subtly drive that point home, that it’s rarely the children that cause the issues.”
With anti-trans legislation pressing into everyday life, Barma felt now, more than ever, this story is needed in the community.
“It felt pretty timely. I live in a bubble out here, but even the bubble of San Francisco has its cracks when it comes to certain issues. With everything going on and the more you read, it’s kinda anti-LGBTQ and particularly trans,” Barma says.
Barma herself does not identify as trans, but she feels, as an educator and a queer person, that it’s important to share her experiences with the world.
“It just felt like it was on the rise and being an educator and watching young people still struggle, even within the queer community, this particular topic of gender identity is a challenge,” Barma says.
Brian Casey, Love Your Shorts Screening and Programming Director, says “Pete” is one of the best films he’s seen in a long time.
“Sometimes you get films that have a great message, but they’re not presented well. Sometimes you get films extraordinary in their quality, but they don’t say very much. This one had everything,” Casey says. “The story really rings true, the animation style was just wonderful, very cute, very engaging, the music was very engaging.”
Barma said they are working on expanding the film. They have written drafts for other scenes that would share other moments from her childhood
“We’re in the process of writing additional pieces. We have about seven,” Barma says.
For now, though, Barma and Parker are happy with the film’s success in the film festival circuit. Its success has exceeded their expectations.
“We both feel like this is a story about acceptance and hope and change. It is a gender identity story, but one that really bridges experience between the LGBTQ community and the community at large. We were very hopeful that it would be really positively received and it has been, so that’s been exciting,” Parker says.
“Pete” will play as a part of the Love Your Shorts’ Animation Film Block Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. The full film festival runs Feb. 9-12. Tickets are available here.
