16mm. 19 minutes.
A morbid and tender love story that begins when a lonely girl drags home the naked body of a comatose, genital-less blonde woman. "Those who flocked to Naked Lunch but were disappointed by David Cronenberg’s glossing over of the seamier side of William S. Burroughs’ world need look no further than Paci’s Transeltown. Paci is the lesbian answer to Burroughs. Transeltown takes science fiction, horror, erotica and documentary to wonderfully perverse new levels." -- The Bay Area Reporter

Cast: Myra Paci, Carter Burwell, Dina Emerson, Stanton Miranda, Natalia Neszuu, Vera Setta, and Adrienne Weiss.

Crew:
Produced, Written, Directed, and Edited by Myra Paci
Cinematography by Giselle Chamma and Tim Naylor
Music and Sound Design by Carter Burwell and Myra Paci
Production Design by Henrique Mourthé
Costume Design by Dagmar Lutringer

Press
The Village Voice -- Judy Berman
"Myra Paci’s Transeltown is a sci-fi and horror–inflected hallucination, whose vision of gender dysphoria and fluidity now seems years ahead of its time."

San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
“Myra Paci’s Transeltown is a morbid and strangely tender tale of love in the tradition of David Lynch; it is simultaneously repulsive and seductive – like a lesbian Eraserhead. “

Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco – Kate Bornstein
“Only one of the Sweet Dreams program entries was available for preview, but Myra Paci’s Transeltown by itself is worth the price of the whole show (which also includes Su Friedrich’s 1982 But No One and the European lesbian S/M epic Mano Destra). Those who flocked to Naked Lunch but were disappointed by David Cronenberg’s glossing over of the seamier side of William S. Burroughs’ world need look no further than Paci’s Transeltown. Paci is the lesbian answer to Burroughs. Transeltown takes science fiction, horror, erotica and documentary to wonderfully perverse new levels. An androgynous Hispanic central figure is slowly drawn into a world of sex and death. Frightening in its intensity, this film is positively arresting. Necrophilia, sacrificial rites, drag queens, religious mysticism and a celebration of the senses make this a rich cinematic experience."

Vision Magazine of Cinema/Television Arts, Boston -- Elisabeth Subrin
"The archetypal Dante narrative is transported to fin-de-siecle Times Square when a lost, lonely girl drags home the naked body of a genital-less blonde, whose subsequent disappearance compels our androgynous protagonist (played by the director, New York University graduate film student Myra Paci) into a nightmarish, ecstatic world of thresholds – Transeltown. This stunning 16mm narrative short climaxes in a carnivalesque, bacchanalian club scene in which hostile daytime encounters return to party as transgendered, seductive witness/voyeurs. The butch fish-gutter’s leers becomes the Master of Castration’s lures; the pervert pushing the x-rated female anatomy photos shifts to a drag queen offering a film (video footage hurling through a urethral flesh tunnel); the rocking rhythms of a rabbi bent over texts seem erotically charged. Here Dante finds her elusive Mistress of Ceremonies, who reveals the source of her circumcision/clitoridectomy as she lures the initiate under the electric sander. Clearly influenced by Ulrike Ottinger, Peter Greenaway, and with zombie clips from Night of the Living Dead, Transeltown has a lush soundtrack of Eastern lullabies, bird songs, and dissynchronized, treated voice-overs. Paci’s liquid images and detailed characters suggest an investment in transcending gender boundaries not of the Thelma and Louise roadtrip, but rather, an intense exploration of ritual and desire, a fantasy that moves beyond the mystery of sexual union to questions of sexual transformation."