Currently in production

LOVERS LIKE US A feature documentary

“We all think we’re so individual in our struggles with identity. No, baby. We’re all doing the same dance.”Alora

Co-directed by Alora LeMalu and Emmanuele Allamani

Nikita walking past the murals in Oakland at dusk — Logline

In the Bay Area, three women of trans experience, one of them co-directing, search for love, intimacy and survival, and turn the camera on their trade, the straight-identified men who love them only in private. Through handheld vérité, voice-only testimony and participant-led interviews, they ask what it costs to love across identities that demand secrecy, and what these hidden relationships reveal about love, masculinity and belonging.

“Why do we keep loving men who can only love us in secret?”

The women

Alora Co-director

“My name was in your mouth, like honey, when it was just us.”

Nikita

Performance artist.

“You’re paying me dust in public, but you want to come over to my place and have fun? That’s not going to happen.”

Avearii

Dancer. Model. Entrepreneur. House of Chanel.

“You sign your soul on the dotted line when you commit with me.”

The women lead the conversations about love, community, desire and secrecy.

The men

Every night in Oakland, men of all walks of life slip away from their public lives, for rare moments when they can be honest about who they are, and who they want to be with when the world isn’t looking.

These are profound intimacies, between people whose identities appear constructed in opposition to each other.

There is a wide array of trans-amorous men, some of them learning to come out and date openly.

This is a story of love through difference, and the challenges that come from a world constructed without space for them.

Why now

At a moment of unprecedented LGBTQ+ visibility, we are witnessing a violent, state-backed political backlash that threatens trans lives.

This film is urgent because these relationships aren’t marginal. They’re everywhere, exposing cracks in the foundation of societal pressures.

Dwelling in contradiction

What does it cost a man to sever himself from his most intimate desires?

How does shame shape women of trans experience as sites of taboo satisfaction?

How do power, vulnerability, and risk shift between those who live their queerness publicly and those who compartmentalize their desire?

Lovers Like Us is not a film about villains or victims. We do not seek to resolve the contradictions of secrecy and desire. We dwell in them.

The men we only hear keep their opacity: the film does not treat exposure as truth.

Visual language

Fugitive Crossroads

Audio

The men arrive first as sound. Voice notes. Calls. Texts read aloud.

Silhouettes

Silhouettes return, initially masculine, revealed as feminine figures lip-syncing the men’s words.

Spiral

A structural spiral threads voices, clubs, masculinity, ritual, anonymity, desire.

Ritual

Contemplative fixed-camera shots. White clothing against candlelit altars.

The team

Built in Oakland.

Co-director / DOP Emmanuele ‘Manni’ Allamani Oakland filmmaker trained in anthropology. Eight years in production design. AP on The Archive (Sussberg / Alvarado). Director, Nuovo Cinema 2 (short). UnionDocs Summer Lab ’25. BAVC MediaMaker Connect ’26.

Co-director / DOP Alora LeMalu One of the three women in the film, and its co-director. She shapes story and structure, reviews every cut, films, and conducts the conversations with the men.

Co-producer LaTajh “Taj” Simmons-Weaver Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces. AP on Earth Mama (A24, Sundance ’23, BAFTA Outstanding Debut). Two films premiered ’25: Budget Paradise (SFFILM), Hold Me Close (Sundance). SFFILM Rainin Grant.

Story Producer Jade Mora Producer on the film since its 2024 BAVC application. Now its story producer.

Associate Producer Céline Batiste Film producer, visual archivist and fundraiser. Co-founded the Black Trans Matrix at UC Berkeley.

Associate Producer Haneen Sidahmed Sudanese-American filmmaker and archivist, BAVC youth fellow. Line producer on the film.

Editors Leonor Maldonado · Kiryl Synkou Co-editing the new proof of concept. Pamela Martinez cut the earlier one.

Consulting Story Editor Sara Maamouri Peabody-winning, Emmy-nominated documentary editor. Edited and co-produced The Judge (TIFF 2017, Independent Lens). Oakland.

Field Producer / Care Lead Tavi Rodrigues Oakland community organizer and care practitioner embedded in queer nightlife and ballroom communities.

Advisors Cristiana Giordano (Anthropology, UC Davis) · Jazmin Jones (Directing) · Dawn Valdez (Impact + Producing, BAVC) · Paul Dallas (UnionDocs) · Nico Opper (BAVC MediaMaker Connect mentor)

Support the film

Your support ensures this perspective reaches the world, with fair compensation for the collaborators and participants whose lives and courage shape the film.

Donate through BAVC Media

Donations are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, BAVC Media. For larger gifts, the screener or the deck, write to manni@dontsaycat.net.

Fiscally sponsored by BAVC Media, a 501(c)(3)

With support from California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellowship, via Kala Art Institute · Berkeley Film Foundation · City of Berkeley · UnionDocs Summer Documentary Lab · BAVC MediaMaker Connect · and individual donors

Alora in a mirrored tunnel, reaching toward the camera

“The lover always wins.

Even if my heart is broken. Even if I end up by myself the rest of my life. The lover always wins.”

Alora, co-director