Transcript of Celebrating Trans Films - Part Two

In Celebrating Trans Films - Part One, only one fiction film featured trans actors and there was one documentary, this time for the trans films of the 21st century, there are three documentaries, and four of the fiction films feature at least one trans actor, also I have seen all of the films I will discuss.

If you Google, “top ten trans films”, a number of the same films will appear on the lists, and one list I would recommend is the BFI’s 10 great transgender films of the 21st century, which I found helpful when deciding which ten films to include.

The BFI’s list was compiled by Cathy Brennan, whose critical assessment is I feel further strengthened by being trans.

As before if you wish to avoid even unintended spoilers, please come back to this episode after seeing those films you want to watch first, and as in part one, all the films are listed in the description, with where available according to the British Board of Film Classification’s website, their year of production.

Welcome to “Trans Wise Trans Strong”, I am Carolyne O’Reilly.

Episode nine, “Celebrating Trans Films - Part Two”

From the dawn of a new century comes a film by Kate Davis, 2001’s “Southern Comfort”, which is a rarity as it focusses on the lives of trans men.

The film follows Robert Eads, and this is not a spoiler as it is revealed at the beginning of the film, who has terminal cancer, and follows the leadup to the “Southern Comfort Conference”, an annual transgender conference, held since 1991, and Robert wants to attend.

As well as Robert, we meet their girlfriend Lola who is a trans woman, and his friend Max also a trans man and their girlfriend Cori who is also a trans woman, and his wider community of friends.

Given when the film was shot the term transsexual is used throughout the film instead of transgender, which I found somewhat jarring.

Robert is eloquent about what it means to be a trans man, and his insights on societies acceptance, or rather lack of acceptance of trans people is still to a degree, not out of place some twenty-four years later.

At one point Robert reveals a number of doctors have refused him treatment because of their concerns about the reaction of their other patients, can you imagine if those same doctors had said that about a person of colour.

But as Robert said, “first it was people of colour, then gay people and now its transsexual people’s turn to face prejudice”, which sadly still applies today.

It is not just Robert who experienced medical prejudice, but virtually everyone we meet has one or more horror stories related to their medical, well one could hardly call it, treatment.

I agree with Cathy’s review that not critiquing the medical so called profession, was an opportunity missed.

Having spent 90 minutes in the company of Robert, I came away in the knowledge that I had met, albeit vicariously, a truly wonderful man.

The French language film, “Wild Side”, from 2004, is the first of two films I will discuss that follows the lives of transgenders sex workers, and like Tangerine, has a trans woman Stéphanie Michelini, a non-professional actor, portraying the protagonist also named Stéphanie.

As well as Stéphanie, another trans actor is featured, Anohni Hegarty, who is a singer in the film.

The film, directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, follows Stéphanie returning to her hometown to care for her mother, and explores Stéphanie’s relationship with her two male lovers who are also attracted to each other, and wow is there is a shite load of sex throughout.

It employs a non-linear structure, and like other films with a fractured narrative, is reminiscent of a jigsaw puzzle without a complete picture as a guide, its only as the more pieces are joined that the whole picture is revealed, sorry about the pun.

And yes the films title was inspired by Lou Reed’s, a “Walk on the Wild Side”, which name checks among others; Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn who we met in part one as the stars of “Women in Revolt”.

And speaking of, Walk on the Wild Side, I think I might devote an episode to Celebrating Trans on Record, and not just the recordings but performers as well, and

perhaps those recordings where cisgender performs demonstrate that they just don’t understand what it means to be trans, or to put it another way, have a definite transphobic odour.

Unlike Wild Side, 2005’s “Transamerica”, written and directed by Duncan Tucker, has the cisgender actress Felicity Huffman portraying the protagonist Bree, and at the very beginning, so I don’t think this is really a spoiler, there are a couple of telling scenes.

In the first, Bree sees her male psychiatrist, who although signs her consent form for her gender affirming surgery, informs her that “The American Psychiatric Association categorises gender dysphoria as a very serious mental illness”.

Whilst as a trans woman I was seriously unimpressed with this assertion, I also wondered if this assertion was accurate.

The American Psychiatric Association mentioned, publish a reference for Psychiatrists, the current edition, DSM-V does use the term “gender dysphoria”, coined by Dr Harry Benjamin, in 1973, but this was published in 2013, also, gender dysphoria is definitely NOT a very serious mental illness.

When the film was made in 2005, the psychiatrist character would have been consulting DSM-IV, which was published in 1994, and in that edition the term “gender identity disorder” is used.

I think someone got their facts a bit mixed up.

The second, Bree’s female psychotherapist, learning from Bree that she has a hitherto unknown son, will not sign her consent form until she has connected with her son, and states that her son “…is part of her body that cannot be discarded”, I wonder how today’s psychotherapists would view this requirement.

The film then develops into a road movie, where Bree encounters a number of characters many of whom are accepting of her, although close to home one relation is not, and her son for their part behaves on several occasions like an utter gobshite.

Whilst Bree is not portrayed by a trans actor, there is a scene where Bree stays overnight at a house where earlier there was a get together of trans women and one

of the characters is portrayed by a trans actor, Calpernia Addams, a definite positive.

A term used in that scene also dates the film, as like in Southern Comfort, transsexual is used instead of transgender.

Felicity Huffman’s portrayal of a trans woman is sympathetic and mostly realistic, although there is one scene that badly jars, it is early on, where she sits on her son’s bed with her legs spread apart under her skirt for what feels like comic effect, not that I was amused.

I am unsure what the director Duncan’s intent was with this scene, it just feels false, that said Felicity’s portrayal of Bree does feel like a rounded character.

From 2015 is “Tangerine”, and not only are the two leads portrayed by transwomen, new comers Kitana Kiki Rodriguez as Sin-Dee Rella and Mya Taylor as Alexandra, many of the other cast of characters are also portrayed by trans women.

The film is as previously mentioned, about transgender sex workers, and starts with Sin-Dee having just got out of prison and angry over a personal betrayal, and follows the events which unfold over the course of a hot Christmas Eve on Santa Monica Boulevard.

The film has a distinctive look, it was filmed with deep focus, on a iPhone 5S employing an anamorphic adapter, giving it a Cinemascope like aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

It has a number of very funny scenes and also contains some fairly strong sex scenes, drug use and to quote the British bbfc, moderate threat, in Britain it was rated 15, suitable for 15 years and over, however in the US it was R rated, which I would suggest implies a different attitude to sex scenes in the US compared with the UK.

“The Danish Girl”, also from 2015, was based on a novel of the same name by David Ebershoff and was directed by Tom Hooper, and was portrayed as being based on the life of Lili Ilse Elvenes, however it’s accuracy is questionable.

That said Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander as her wife, won praise for their portrayal of Lili and Gerda Wegener, and that Lili was portrayed by a cisgender man

does begin to stand out in this list.

Interestingly in 2021 Eddie Redmayne commented in The Sunday Times, “No, I wouldn’t take it on now,” .... “I made that film with the best intentions, but I think it was a mistake…”.

One can only hope that more cisgender actors will follow Ediie’s example, and yes I definitely consider Eddie Redmayne as a trans ally.

The film suggests that Lili’s awareness of being transgender came as a result of her modelling for a portrait that Gerda was painting, however having discussed awareness of being trans with my trans friends, I would suggest it is usually in early childhood that a trans child begins to questions the sex they were assigned.

But why do some trans people not come out as trans until later in life, well there can be multiple reasons; pressure from parents, relations, friends, work, society.

For myself being born in the early sixties, I was not aware that one could be trans, until my mid teens, and in fact the word “transgender” was not coined until 1965 when Psychiatrist John F. Oliven conceived the term “transgenderism”, from which transgender is derived.

But back to the real life of Lili, it was at “The Institute for Sexual Science”, mentioned in the episode, “What Are Words Worth”, founded by Dr Magnus Hirschfeld that she had her gender affirming surgeries, and prior to her surgery, Dr Hirschfeld carried out a psychological assessment.

And today a psychological assessment is still required before one can begin the process that can lead to gender affirming surgery.

As for Lili her transition was made public by reports in Danish and German newspapers, and if you haven’t already seen the film and wish to, I wont say too much more about Lili’s portrayal in the film.

Now bearing in mind this is the 1930’s, in real life Lili was able to be issued with a Danish passport as Lili Ilse Elvenes, and her sex as female, later in life she gave up painting and changed her surname to Elbe.

However in Germany by 1934, the Nazis had cemented their absolute power, and began what would lead to the genocide of Jewish people, initially Jewish people had their rights curtailed, as was also true for many other groups, including trans people.

Flash forward to the 23rd of January 2025, when the US State Department, as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, suspended all applications for passport gender changes, and removed the gender neutral option of X as a sex marker, so the rights of trans people are being curtailed like in the nineteen…

Although the central concept of 2015’s Swedish language film, “Girls Lost” is revealed near the beginning of the film, if you wish to come to it unencumbered by any knowledge, see you back in 106 minutes.

The film starts with three teenage girls experiencing severe prejudice, which is very uncomfortable to watch and then a little while later they are in the greenhouse of one of the girls parents opening a delivery of a box of seeds.

They find a small glass bottle with a single large seed in it that they did not order, and decide to plant the seed, which grows into a plant that oozes a nectar that they decide to drink.

They then find that their bodies are transformed into male version’s of themselves, and decide to explore how those around them will react to them as male, but by the next day they have reverted to their female bodies.

They repeat the experiment, and the film explores not only the meaning of gender identity but also sexual orientation, and the relationship between these two separate psychological aspects of a person.

The three girls are portrayed by three cisgender actors; Tuva Jagell, Louise Nyvall and Wilma Holmén, and their respective male alto egos are also portrayed by cisgender actors; Emrik Öhlander, Alexander Gustavsson and Vilgot Ostwald Vesterlund.

I feel that if trans male actors had been cast in the roles of the girls male persona’s, another level would have been added to the film.

And like Girls Lost, 2018’s Belgium language, “Girl”, also has central character who in not an adult, and follows the transition journey of a teenage trans girl, and is the directorial debut of Lukas Dhort, which was loosely based on the life of a trans teenager Nora Monsecour, a dancer the director Lukas met when they were 18 and Nora was 15.

In the film Nora is represented by the character Lara Verhaeghen, portrayed by the cisgender actor Victor Polster, and the film was garnished with awards.

Nora collaborated with Lukas on the script for Girl and was a steadfast supporter, however I found the fixation on Lara’s naked body uncomfortable viewing, and I

question the narrative in terms of its portrayal of teenage trans experience.

To say more would definitely be a spoiler, but there is one aspect which is mentioned right at the beginning of the film, so not really a spoiler, Lara is on puberty blockers.

This being 2018, puberty blockers were also available to trans children in the UK, but after the publication of Dr Hilary Cass’ review, puberty blockers for the treatment of gender incongruence in under 18s was first banned temporarily, as Dr Cass found there was insufficient evidence to show they were safe.

Then in 2023 in Northern Ireland and the following year in England, Scotland and Wales, this temporary ban was made indefinite.

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogue injections are the most commonly prescribed puberty blocker, and this is exactly the same treatment for precocious puberty, which is where puberty begins before 8 years of age in girls and 9 years in boys, and has be prescribed since the 1980’s.

So how exactly does a treatment presumably safe when used for cisgender children for forty years, metamorphoses into an unsafe treatment when prescribed to trans children, I couldn’t be detecting the merest whiff of transphobia?

Of all the films discussed, for me NETFLIX’s 2020 documentary, “Disclosure”, is the most important, as it examines the representation of trans and non-binary people on the big and small screen, from the silent era, to the then present day.

I won’t say much more, other than to say it was so uplifting to see so many trans and non-binary contributors on screen, that said, some of the clips from films and television shows, vital for the narrative, did make for some very uncomfortable viewing, and it was satisfying to see the five films I said to avoid in part one, where

also namechecked here.

That trans and non-binary actors are now able to portray fully rounded believable characters, in contrast to past ignorant representation, can only be seen as a positive.

For the penultimate film, we come to the Spanish language French musical, 2024’s “Emilia Perez”, and the fact it is hear would definitely give you a clue about it, but if you are planning to see it and have avoided knowing anything about the film, not easy given the controversy surrounding it, see you back, this time in 132 minutes.

The film follows the central character Emilia Perez, portrayed by transgender actor Karla Sofía Gascón who wishes to have gender affirming surgery so that they can live their authentic life as a woman.

Emilia revealed that they had always felt female but thought transition was not possible but had finally reached a point where they could not continue living in effect a lie in respect of the gender identity, and the film follows Emilia’s life now as a woman.

Unlike Girl, I would say this films portrayal of the psychological conflict a trans person goes through before deciding to transition is realistic, although perhaps Emilia’s former career is not exactly common among trans people.

And what of the controversy, initially it was comments Karla made in respect of the Oscar campaign of fellow Oscar Best Actress nominee Fernanda Torres, which seemed critical, and then historical tweets from the early 20’s came to light which, how shall I put it, were not exactly diplomatic.

It’s a great shame that a film that was garnered with award nominations and should have been celebrated for featuring a trans actor in a leading role is somewhat mired by controversy.

The film had ten British Bafta nominations, but won only two, and similarly at the Oscars, the film had 12 nominations, and but again won only two, one can only wonder if it had been sans controversy, would the awards tally have been greater?

We started with a documentary, and we end with another, NETFIX’s 2024’s “Will & Harper”, and it is also a road movie, as we follow Will Ferrell traveling across America with their long time friend Harper Steele, who recently came out as a trans woman.

I feel this is also an important film, as it explores coming out as a trans woman later in life, which definitely resonated with me, as like myself, Harper came out in their mid fifties, and anyone who has a friend or relation who similarly transitions later in life should definitely see this film.

The film does address the issue of transphobia, and showed some hate comments that were posted whilst they were filming, and I had to look away from the screen, as I had no interest in reading vile rants.

But as well as some unpleasantness, there were unsurprisingly, a lot of laughs along the way and also some poignancy.

Before I had decided on the final list of ten films, I realised that with the next episode I would be into double figures, and thought why not discuss my transition journey, so when my therapist Dr Kenneth Demsky asked, had I thought to include Will & Harper, my decision for the next the episode seemed somewhat prophetic.

This episode was written and presented by me, Carolyne O’Reilly, thank you for listening.

And before you go, after a hesitant start, I would like to let you know that the website at www.twts.co.uk, supporting this Podcast is up and running.

You can leave a message on the Have Your Say page of any, observations, suggestions or ideas for future episodes, as I would love to hear from you, my wonderful loyal listens.

Next time, “A Journey of Transition: Carolyne’s story - Part One”