Trans in Film and Video 6/26/23
Abigail Thorn
A new project set in the Star Wars universe, The Acolyte, is currently in pre-production and will feature trans actress Abigail Thorn as Ensign Eurus. That makes her Star Wars’ first-ever transgender actor in a non-minor role and the second-ever trans actor after Talisa Garcia was cast in Willow. Garcia’s character in that series is the first time in Disney history that an openly trans person played a cisgender role. The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic era before the events of the main Star Wars films. The series is described as a “mystery-thriller that will take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.” Thorn will play a mysterious character named Ensign Eurus, presumably a Republic officer. The series will premier sometime in 2024.
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a website, an archive of sorts, where you could look up films concerning transgender issues? Surprise! There is. It’s called the Otherness Archive and it contains a huge number of LGBTQ films. Many of which fall into the “T” category. Have fun browsing.
Director Crialese.
L’Immensità is an autobiographical story set in 1970s Rome of a child who does not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth. The child’s mother is played by Penelope Cruz. Emanuele Crialese is the director and the story is more than a little bit biographical. Crialese is a trans man. In a recent interview Crialese said the process of exploring his own story to create his fictional portrait of gender dysphoria was “painful, then enlightening”. Learn more from The Hollywood Reporter.
Trans haters on the right have gotten devious. Since their direct propaganda attacks only get listened to by people who already believe trans people are child molesters and a threat to society they are turning to producing “documentaries” that claim to be neutral on the subject. They are not. One such doc, after a successful campaign against it, has been removed from AMC. The film’s title gives away the basic premise; No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care. The message is that the medical and mental health establishments push patients to transition, with no questions asked. That is not how it’s done. Many questions are asked and patients must spend a year living socially in the gender they want to transition into before any hormone therapy (other than puberty blockers) or surgery is done. The film features people who detransitioned and regret ever starting to change gender. The film makes it seem like many people are detransitioning, which is not the case.
Another hint the film is trying to convince viewers that gender-affirming care needs to be banned is the “expert” it features. Dr. Lisa Littman, the person who coined the fake condition of rapid-onset gender dysphoria appears on screen to make it it look like experts are against treating with gender-affirming care when every unbiased survey shows that treatment saves lives. Other “experts” featured have no film credits, the director has only one credit and that is No Way Back. The associate producer is Stephanie Winn whose Instagram page lists her as a “detran advocate”. The film has been dropped by AMC but be aware that it is out there and the producers are trying to find a streaming outlet. Read more about the film and the campaign to stop it in Newsweek.
Another bogus propaganda documentary to be aware of is It Takes a Village. Several LGBTQ people and allies were contacted by a documentary producer and asked to participate in a film that would look at “issues facing children and parents in the trans community and how it relates to our future as a society.” After some research the production was found to be connected to right-wing influencer and anti-trans activist Robby Starbuck. These “documentaries” spread lies and disinformation in ways that seem reasonable. Learn more about It Takes a Village from Rolling Stone.
Jordan Peterson, the professor from Canada who refused to use a student’s preferred pronouns and was shouted down at a speaking engagement has a bigger megaphone in his YouTube podcast. After anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy (not your grandad’s kind of Kennedy) appeared on Peterson’s podcast with claims that the rise in trans youth is due to exposure to environmental chemicals—with no evidence to back up the assertion—YouTube pulled that particular podcast. Peterson is still on YouTube though spreading his anti-trans venom and making money. Newsweek covers the story.
Another documentary is definitely not fake but all too real. Jordan Bryon is a trans man from Australia who started his transition while working as a New York Times reporter in Afghanistan. He started just before the Taliban seized control of the country. The film is titled Transition and it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this month. Bryon had no plan on how to deal with his transition and he was embedded with the Taliban. When things looked their worst he met Monica Villamizar who was in the country working on another documentary. She convinced him to become the subject of Transition. Get the whole amazing story from The Guardian.
Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
