Pretty Moving

Video offers quite a challenge when used to capture one’s cross-dressing, but the results can be very rewarding. Snatches of one’s life are preserved as rare images, with magic akin to that felt by the early motion picture pioneers. Seeing one’s appearance in motion, knowing this is how one looks in life.

After buying a very cheap pocket camcorder in 2011, I made a few short experimental films while cross-dressed. The sound on the camera was terrible; it only cost £30. I muted the audio and edited each piece to exactly ninety seconds. Some show me relaxing at home, one of me walking around the block in high heels. I placed some films online; most were just for fun. Even so, they provided a nice glimpse of my looks and moods at the time.

A better opportunity to test the camera was quickly in the offing. While enjoying Brighton Pride in a blonde wig in 2011, I made a short film. Shooting, of course, far more footage than was used; the resulting edit was about five minutes long.

It was aptly called Polly Goes to Pride. It featured bits of the parade and various video portraits taken in Preston Park, Brighton. I was wearing a very smart pink jacket with my black & white dress; a thick petticoat underneath. White hosiery and chunky Mary-Jane shoes highlighted the cute effect. I took along a white parasol, great for twirling around. The sound effects were added separately, along with music from a brass band.

A sequel came a year later, predictably called Polly at Pride Again. Similar in style, technical standards, and length, the film featured me in a gothic-style black lacy dress, with a floral petticoat underneath. Alas, I didn’t go in 2013 due to work commitments, but maybe next time…?

Having acquired a high-definition video camera, my next two movies were a lot slicker if even shorter. School’s Out for Polly ran a little less than three minutes, about the length of an old-style cine film. I chose a mock school uniform this year, which I had always wanted to wear outdoors in girl mode – very smart! The outfit incorporated my real school tie from years ago, but the rest was chosen from suitable items. There was no proper blazer badge, but I made one and stuck it on my backpack. The film featured some other groovy attendees and a rather cool fountain.

The last of the series came in 2015, just over three minutes long. Oddly, the start of the Pride parade was delayed for an hour by a suspicious object that might have been a bomb but turned out to be, of all things, a pinhole camera stuck on a lamppost. Apparently, it was part of an art project.

Listening to this on the radio delayed my departure – hence the title, Polly’s Late for Pride. The film featured me on my way to the main event, a bit late, though it was a shame about all the rubbish on the ground. There were some nice scenes in the park, with me in pink high heels, a checked skirt, and a blouse. A sparkly butterfly brooch pinned to my bag was sadly lost, however. At one point, I took a fairy cake and munched it while walking through the park. The film ended with shots of the impressive fairground rides, panning past flags into the sky at dusk.

After making this set of films about Pride, I felt I had done enough. The event had grown massively in size, was becoming expensive to attend, and had little in common with cross-dressing besides an attitude of general liberation. But this was often a kind of hedonism that I had no interest in. The filmmaker in me had enjoyed shooting and editing the works and propping the camera up in convenient places to put myself in the picture, but any more would have been needlessly repetitive.

Alongside the Pride films, I have also shot various unedited snippets while out and about. These might not make films in themselves but could be assembled someday. There are shots of me walking along the seafront in stilettos and fishnet tights, and also posing in a country garden. I tried to film Trans Pride in 2017, though the weather was mostly appalling, so I only took a few shots.

I hope to make more cross-dressed videos in the future, though the medium is more challenging than still photography, given the need for good lighting and suitable locations. I have never filmed myself speaking, due more to not knowing what to say than any aversion. Perhaps a short drama or sketch would be easier, giving lines to speak or providing some context.

If you want to see the films, reach out to me by PM.

More Articles by Polly Jocelyn

• Fashionably Framed
• A Bargain Tale
• Dressing Up, Girlish

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