How the taxpayer funded "A Medical Drag Transthology" to celebrate the NHS's birthday
How the taxpayer funded "A Medical Drag Transthology" to celebrate the NHS's birthday
Yet another bonkers project funded by the Arts and Humanities Council
Today on Woke Waste, I will show you a film that taxpayers helped to fund - not that I expect you knew about it.
Last year, to mark 75 years of the NHS, the Arts and Humanities Council (AHRC) and BFI partnered to fund three short films “to tell untold stories of the NHS.”
The winners were announced in June, with premieres (at the BFI Southbank) scheduled for November.
In a release about the project, the BFI writes: “The films will also be taken into the BFI National Archive and will become part of the NHS on Film Collection.”
The BFI’s release:
NHS England’s:
A quick reminder about AHRC (it gets confusing remembering all these quangos we pay for)
To recap, AHRC is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
The UKRI spends £8 billion of taxpayers’ money a year.
Back to the film
One of the projects AHRC paid for in 2023 is titled Dr. XYZ; A Medical Drag Transthology, which “will engage the trans and non-binary community in Birmingham to help source their untold stories and experiences of accessing healthcare.”
Tell me more…
Here is an elucidating clip from Youtube about the film:
It makes some pretty bold claims about trans healthcare:
Here are some images from the shoot - from a separate Instagram page:
The filmmakers also have their own Instagram page - link here - where they have a call out for “POC, asylum seekers, neurodiverse and disabled identifying people to apply” for one of their group interview sessions.
But that’s not all.
By far the strangest part of this film can be found on Dr. XYZ’s Linktree website.
First of all there’s Dr. XYZ’s manifesto:
Participants are offered a “wellbeing officer” to support them “while recounting what could be traumatic experiences”, and they will be “using drag comedy satire”.
Below they make a call out for performers - note that there’s been a new trend for the expression the “Global Majority”.
You’re probably thinking it can’t get more bonkers than what you’ve just looked at (and we haven’t even got to the funding yet). Well, it can.
Here are some screenshots from the “Easy Read Interview Call Out” from Dr. XYZ:
How much is this costing?
According to the BFI, the filmmakers on its NHS Untold Film Stories project were awarded up to £20,000 each.
It’s not obvious the exact amount XYZ Projects received from AHRC. However, it clearly wasn’t enough as the team also started a crowdfunder.
“Though we have received a grant from this initiative we are still £2627 in the red”, it reads:
Here’s a link if anyone wants to donate.
A final point
It’s worth reflecting on this project with reference to the Cass review released this week. Clearly the NHS is severely lacking when it comes to gender care.
But this film hardly improves things - and I suspect 99 percent of the British public never even knew about its existence.
It is yet another example of the UKRI and its subsidiaries - particularly AHRC - wasting taxpayer money.
More:
For more examples of AHRC spending, see these following pieces on Woke Waste:
A message from Woke Waste:
I have recently turned on paid subscriptions on my Substack and will be increasingly mixing the number of paid and free posts.
I’d be really grateful for any financial support in my mission.
Some moola will give me more bandwidth for nosing and finding out what politicians have been spending our money on.
Thank you for every bit of support so far.