Trick or Tranny

Trannies come in a vast variety -- females to males, males to females, "sissy butches," etc. -- and they're all be visible during Tranny Week, a Halloween extravaganza devoted to gender outlaws of every sex. The centerpiece is the one-day Trannyfest Film Festival.Like trannies themselves, this selection of features, shorts, and docs (over 20 in all) explores a wide range of identities. One of the highlights is Creature, which follows a former Southern boy's nerve-wracking trip home after he's become L.A. club queen Stacy Hollywood. The cast of characters -- Bible-thumping redneck father, tearfully accepting mom, mindless scenesters -- is predictable, but there is genuine pathos in Stacy's often unhappy encounters with family, friends, and unforgiving strangers. Another solid entry is Gendernauts, an insider look at the daily lives and nighttime escapades of San Francisco's teeming tranny community. Helping us negotiate the thicket of shifting genders are Susan Stryker, Texas Tomboy, and the inescapable Annie Sprinkle. Festival impresario Christopher Lee wraps it up with the hardcore feature Sex Flesh in Blood. In this hour-long paean to transgressive sex, Lee regulars Angel and Jade-Blue Eclipse put each other and a variety of hapless homos, straights, and trannies through their sexual paces, using dildos, vacuum pumps, whips, blood, and a strategically placed toilet bowl. There's plenty of sexual sturm und drang here, and this one is not for the faint of heart, but hey, it wouldn't be the Trannyfest otherwise. Watch for Mayor Brown at the 7:30 show, which features the Millennium Halloween Costume Contest. Screenings begin at noon Saturday and run until midnight at the Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th St. (at Valencia), S.F. Admission is $5-7.50; call 820-3245. Diva Alexis Miranda appears at midnight at Divas, 1081 Post (at Polk), S.F. Admission is $3 (or free with a Roxie ticket stub); call 474-3482.