I think director Tobin hill Meyer is convinced that she’s directing the anti-trans porn film, but “Doing it Ourselves” couldn’t be farther from the truth. By pushing from the stereotypes of fetishizing the transgender individual, “Doing it Ourselves” adheres to the same stereotypes by acknowledging the tropes and then trying to fetishize the cast that engage in the movie, by and large.

“Doing it Ourselves” even as a student film is an amateurish and poorly directed farce without much of a storyline or much in the way of sex that calls itself a feature film. Really it’s a series of short films with one binding narrative that involves two people meeting up in a street and having sex. While Meyer tries to spotlight the more humane aspects of sex between transgender partners, “Doing it Ourselves” falls victim to being just another transgender porn with nothing to say and nothing to accomplish.

We can acknowledge that those in the transgender community are human beings with feelings and dimensions, but I watch porn for the fantasy. “Doing it Ourselves” turns its individual performers in to the fantasy, thus falling prey to the same expectations that the viewer would take to any other title. Like both “Doing It Again” volumes, “Doing it Ourselves” is weird and confused. It can never decide if it’s erotic, or an honest look at transgender relations, so it invariably falls victim to both attempts and fails big time. The only consolation is the attractive cast in Volume 2, and that’s a small consideration.

I’m all for a movie about transgender politics and relationships, showing that they’re not just toys to be played with and tossed aside. That they want more than just fucking and cock, but “Doing it Ourselves” goes about it the wrong way. Deep, deep down there’s a human dramedy waiting to burst out, but it’s lost in its odd situations and scant sex scenes that can’t even really classify this as porn.

As far as “Doing it Ourselves” goes, you can Skip It, and move on to other more interesting productions about the gay community and transgender individuals. This is rank amateur bush league junk.

EXTRAS

“The Making Of” Story is a fifteen minute chronicle of the history of “Doing it Ourselves” and the “Doing it Again” series. There’s a two minute deleted scene that contributes almost nothing to the movie, and a series of annotated trailers. There’s the show “Body Talk Live” discussing the movie and its production and complete interviews with the cast and crew, all of whom discuss the movie and its history. Finally, there are interview highlights for all of the scenes.

AUDIO VISUAL

The audio stinks as the most of the direction is composed with a camcorder, so it’s tough to make out what anyone say to each other. With the visual quality I’ve seen much more interesting feature films with a lot more cinematic grace. At least approach the film like arthouse. It can’t even do that most times.