Pop Culture Fix: “Carol” and “Tangerine” Dominate Independent Spirit Award Nominations
It’s Thanksgiving time here in the United States of America, which means it’s a super slow pop culture news week — but the things we need to discuss really need to be discussed, so let’s do that now.
The Movies
+ Carol dominated the speciality box office this weekend (I did my part; I saw it two times) and was nominated for more Independent Spirit Awards than any other movie this year: Best Feature, Best Director, Best Female Lead (for both Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett), and Best Screenplay.
+ Tangerine was also nominated for Best Feature, which was an excellent surprise, and trans actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor were nominated for Best Female Lead and Best Supporting Female, respectively! This is the first time openly trans actresses have been nominated in both acting categories in the same year. Tangerine also snagged a Best Director nomination.
+ Cynthia Nixon got a nod for Best Supporting Female.
The Independent Spirit Award winners will be announced on February 27, the day before the Academy Awards.
+ Sarah Paulson, who also honestly deserved a Best Supporting Female nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards, chatted up The Daily Beast about Carol. The interview is FULL of spoilers, so beware if you click through. It’s a good one, though. Here’s a non-spoilery quote.
I think gay, straight, it doesn’t matter. Love is a bitch, man. Except for when it isn’t! And it’s the part when it isn’t that keeps us coming back for more.
The Teevee
Last night, soon-to-be Freeform aired a Pretty Little Liars special called Pretty Little Liars: 5 Years Forward that was mostly just interviews with the cast explaining what their characters have gotten up to in the time jump that will take place between seasons 6A and 6B. My feelings about this upcoming season are very, very complicated because of that finale and because of some baffling spoilers that are floating around the internet and because last night’s special spent so much time trying to make me feel sympathy for Ezra Fitz because his life was extra hard after the teenage girls he stalked and preyed upon moved away to college.
However, there was a mention of Paige McMullers. There was no actual Paige McCullers on screen, but here’s a thing that happened in one of the two never-before-seen scenes that accompanied the interviews.
You know you wanna kiss me.
You and Hanna look too different now. It’s not the same for me anymore.
Mona: Any word from Em?
Ali: Last time I talked to her, she was on her way up to Stanford to see Paige. I think they’re seeing each other.
Mona: Are they together?
Ali: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Spoilers for the 6B premiere, according to 5 Years Forward: Emily’s dad died and so she dropped out of college and is really the most fucked up of all the Liars, Hanna works for whoever Miranda Priestly is in this universe, Spencer is a lobbyist in D.C., Aria publishes books after jumping from SCAD to Boston College and graduating with a degree in literature, Ali is dating Charlotte’s psychiatrist, and Charlotte is maybe going to get out of jail if the Liars come back to town and testify on her behalf.
Hanna knows what Heather means.
I’ve got until January to see if we can work up to my former excitement and compassion for this show. Maybe that’s what I’ll ask Santa to bring me.
+ PLL is back on January 12. The Fosters is back on January 25.
+ Once Upon a Time‘s showrunners are still being cagey about the promised “LGBT relationship” that’s supposed to happen this season. While all signs are currently pointing toward Mulan and Ruby, Adam Horowitz still doesn’t want to talk about it. He told Entertainment Weekly:
“Our worry is the more the press asks us, the more it’s turning into the very special episode of Once, where we have a gay character, as opposed to what we wanted, which was we tell a story of love no different than Snow [Ginnifer Goodwin] and Charming [Josh Dallas] or Hook [Colin O’Donoghue] and Emma [Jennifer Morrison],” executive producer Edward Kitsis adds.”
+ Rosie O’Donnell, who is apparently going to get dragged into the damn GOP primary whether she likes it or not, guest stars on Empire tonight.
https://youtu.be/UFBcLvzDxkk
Have a happy Thanksgiving, y’all!
15 Best Trans Woman Movies According to Trans Women
It’s Trans Awareness Week, the week leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20th. When we say that Autostraddle is website primarily for queer women, we want to be 100% clear that that includes queer trans women and that it’s important to honor trans women year-round, not just in obituaries. So all week long we’re going to be spotlighting articles by and about trans women, with a special focus on trans women of color. We hope you’ll love reading everything as much as we’ve loved writing and editing it.
It seems like filmmakers are practically jumping at the chance to make movies about trans people right now. This year alone we’ve seen Tangerine, About Ray, Stonewall, Grandma and The Danish Girl, all featuring trans characters. However, this increase in trans characters hasn’t exactly resulted in an increase in positive representation. Most of the movies I mentioned featured cis actors playing the trans roles, and most aren’t really what you would call happy stories for the trans characters. This is how trans representation in movies has been for as long as I can remember.
Laverne Cox tattooing Lily Tomlin in a scene from Grandma.
So, when I say that this is the list of the 15 Best Trans Woman Movies, I should make it clear that most of the movies on this list aren’t necessarily that great in the area of trans representation, and I don’t think that any of them are perfect. They are, however, better than most, and they did mean a lot to many of the trans women who watched them. So, while most of these movies might not be great examples of trans representation on the silver screen, they are the 15 best movies featuring trans women according to trans women.
The trans women who I polled were women who have written for Autostraddle and other sites, including me, Devan Diaz, Lexi Adsit, Gabby Bellot, Raquel Willis, Savannah, Drew, Nicole and Sadie Edwards; writer and editor Jamie Berrout; author Ryka Aoki; trans activist Cherno Biko; Her Story co-creator and co-star Jen Richards; Transparent producer and one of the creators of “This is Me,” Zackary Drucker; writer and illustrator Annie Mok, Drunktown’s Finest and Her Story director Sydney Freeland, Black Girl Dangerous writer Princess Harmony Rodriguez, TSER Director and co-founder Eli Erlick and Transparent actress Trace Lysette.
Many of the trans women I talked to couldn’t name more than two or three movies they thought were good, some could only name one, a few couldn’t even name one. One of the women I asked, Devan Diaz said that she finds it hard to watch films with trans characters because they ring so false for her. It doesn’t feel like she’s seeing herself reflected in the movie.
Most films I’ve seen that have included trans characters/actors have been for the cis gaze. It’s always the same story of the person going from point a to point b, but we never see the life beyond transition. We never see cis characters and actors ask critical questions about gender the way that seems required of trans people in film. I think if we want to be more inclusive we all need to confront identity and who we are, and that means interrogating misogyny and transmisogyny in film.
Another woman, Jamie Berrout, said that it’s hard for her to watch these movies because it’s too difficult for her to not empathize with the trans women on screen, who are usually being mistreated, either by the other characters, the narrative itself or the filmmakers.
Whenever I see trans women characters there’s an immediate connection where I try to identify with them and match up my experiences to what they’re going through in their fictional lives. When a trans woman character is treated badly by her part in the film or by the plot or by being portrayed by a cis person then that means I’ll be suffering along with her. And I’m not using that “when” lightly — watching a movie that features trans women is almost always a painful, invalidating, anxiety-causing experience. The question isn’t, “Will this movie hurt me?” it’s, “Which of these possible ways of hurting me will this movie employ?” and “Is there something about this movie that makes it worth being insulted and humiliated for a couple of hours?”
Still, there are some movies that some trans women do like, and do relate to. These movies aren’t assured to work for all trans women, but if you’re looking for a movie that at least some trans women think represent them well, these are your best bets.
The films Wild Zero, Beautiful Boxer, Trash, The Legend of the Swordsman (Swordsman II) and Laurence Anyways also received votes but didn’t make the list.
15. The Matrix
Not only is The Matrix one of the most revolutionary action and science fiction films of the past 30 years, but it’s also probably the most famous movie written and directed by a trans woman, and as Ryka Aoki told me, “We should not focus only on the beautiful ones in front of the camera, but also the brilliant trans women behind the camera, as well.” Although she wasn’t out at the time, Lana Wachowski co-wrote and co-directed this film about a group of hackers/freedom fighters who start a revolution against the robots who are enslaving earth. As Annie Mok pointed out, the film was also full of trans symbolism.
Among the first words in The Matrix are “CALL TRANS OPT,” flashed in green on Neo’s MS-DOS-style screen. This movie was written by a 90’s trans woman anime nerd (with white girl dreads, unfortunately…) — as my friend Maggie Eighteen pointed out, the Wachowski siblings took heavily from the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie. Several essays explore transness in the film. When I watched it on VHS with my housemates recently, I would have taken a drink every time something obviously trans happened, but I’m sober so at each instance I just yelled out “TRANS!” and held up my fist.
14. Drunktown’s Finest
Carmen Moore as Felixia.
Another movie written and directed by a trans woman, this time a trans woman of color named Sydney Freeland, Drunktown’s Finest also co-stars a trans woman of color playing a trans woman of color. This film is about three interconnected young Navajo people, including a sex worker and aspiring model Felixia played by newcomer Carmen Moore. Freeland and Moore bring an authenticity to a trans woman’s story that’s rare in film, and even more rare for a Native American trans woman.
13. A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story
The only “Based on a True Story” on our list, A Girl Like Me tells the story of Gwen Araujo, a young trans Latina, who was beaten and murdered by a group of men who attacked her after they found out she was trans when she was just 17 years old. The film, which originally aired on Lifetime, stars J.D. Pardo as Gwen and won the 2007 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Movie for Television. Drew said that she latched onto the film because “it was one of the first movies I ever watched that was inclusive of someone with not only trans experience but also who was a person of color.” For Sadie, the film marked a turning point in how she viewed trans experiences.
I was probably in the 9th grade, it was a time when I had finally been able to give a name and a face to what was going on with me and seeing films like this were a big influence on that. I spent more than one night I’m sure, sitting and weeping to this movie. It was my one of my first exposures to the brutality and denial that so many trans women, most significantly trans women of color, face in just being themselves. It’s haunting and kind of beautiful, for Lifetime standards, but like most tragic real life trans narratives it’s sometimes pretty hard to watch.
12. The Crying Game
The Crying Game is probably one of the more famous movies with a trans character, but not really for a good reason. This movie’s about an IRA fighter, Fergus, (played by Stephen Rea) who kidnaps a Black British soldier, Jody, (played by Forest Whitaker) and, after bonding with the captive and hearing stories about his girlfriend Dil (played by Jaye Davidson), later meets and falls for her. This movie is, for the most part, a pretty touching love story between Fergus and Dil, even after he finds out she’s trans. The famous scene, however, is when Fergus first sees that Dil is trans, the same time the audience does, causing the viewer to gasp and Fergus to vomit.”The Crying Game was one of those movies I avoided for a very long time. Not really because of the film itself, but the mythos surrounding it. Its been referenced time and again in pop culture because of just how ‘shocking’ the reveal is,” Sadie said, “Once I got around to seeing the film itself, though, I saw a lot of the tenderness and the complexities of the plot. Where others saw the disgust, I saw the love story, the part that said that a trans woman could find love, even with all her parts.”
11. Todo sobre mi madre
Directed and written by the legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, Todo sobre mi madre, also known as All About My Mother, features a trans sex worker named Agrado played by a trans woman, Antonia San Juan, who’s the main character’s old friend. It’s also one of the most-awarded movies featuring a trans woman, taking home the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as dozens of other international awards. For Savannah, “the relatable, charismatic trans woman character Agrado and her relationships with the other women in the film balanced well with transfeminine Lola, who was essentially the film’s ever-absent (but still humanized) antagonist.”
10. Better than Chocolate
This was ranked #91 on our list of the 100 Best Lesbian Movies of All Time, and one of the lesbians in it is Judy, a trans woman played by Peter Outerbridge. It’s not necessarily that this movie is quality that makes it beloved, though, as Annie Mok told me.
Better Than Chocolate is a bad movie, but it’s gleefully bad and weirdly addictive — Autostraddle cartoonist Archie Bongiovanni once busted open a broken laptop with a hammer to get at their DVD copy. I recommend it without irony partly because of the legit sweet subplot starring a trans lady character, the nightclub singer Judy. Judy is a gay nightclub singer, and at one point the protagonists of the movie beat up a girl who harasses her in a bathroom. This movie has multiple montages and ends, as Archie pointed out, with a literal explosion. It’s cute, but only watch it with a friend or two so you can laugh about how, overall, it makes no sense.
9. The Queen
The Queen is a documentary chronicling the Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant of 1967, which was a drag queen pageant hosted by Flawless Sabrina, and won by Rachel Harlow, who would go on to transition after the contest, and featuring, among others, Andy Warhol as a judge. Zackary Drucker says that The Queen isn’t only a good movie, it’s an important historical artifact.
It’s so important that we know where we’re coming from. The Queen is a rare look at pre-Stonewall queer communities, and reveals a time before gender identity distinctions were cemented — all cross-dressing was a felony whether you were a gay man in drag, a trans woman, somewhere in between, black or white, young or old. Watching this group come together over one of Flawless Sabrina’s pageants (“The Nationals”) in 1967 and talk about the draft in Vietnam, family, and living underground, is a tremendous inspiration for today’s trans movement.
The Queen features legends like Crystal LaBeija and has a really interesting behind the scenes look into trans history.
8. Pay it No Mind: The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson
This documentary, which you can watch on Youtube is mainly made up of interviews with the legendary trans activist and Stonewall instigator Marsha P. Johnson, herself. Cherno Biko says it’s “life changing,” and “the most comprehensive archive we have of Marsha. I love that it’s free and on YouTube and more accessible to the girls. Too often we only focus on Sylvia and only think of Marsha as an afterthought. By centering Marsha, this film cemented her place in history as one of the mothers of this movement.” She added that her favorite part “is when they talked about her being called Saint Marsha and how vendors in the flower district cared for her because they considered her holy. This film inspired me to invest and act in Happy Birthday Marsha.” Lexi Adist added that this “documentation of Marsha P. Johnson, in which very little has been written or documented about, is extraordinary! Her struggles and life are a story worth witnessing. I’m just sad it hasn’t received as much fanfare or visibility as other films. Marsha is an icon and grandmother to our modern community and she deserves to be recognized for her labor.”
7. Women in Revolt
A film by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey, this is the rare example of an older film actually starring trans women. Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn. Drucker says that Women in Revolt “is a hoot. Also improvised (like Woodlawn’s earlier film with Morrissey, Trash), [Woodlawn, Curtis and Darling] interpret the fledgling 2nd wave women’s liberation movement with campy flair, organizing their comrades under the moniker ‘P.I.G.’ or ‘Politically Involved Girls,’ becoming lesbians, embezzling money from socialites, among other antics.” She adds that “I love that in both films the transgender actresses were playing cis characters — so ahead of its time.”
6. Wild Side
Wild Side, a 2004 French/Belgian/British film about a trans sex worker named Stéphanie, stars Stéphanie Michelini and won several awards when it came out. Nicole says that what she loves most about the film is that “it manages to be about a trans woman’s life, without sensationalizing it. It touches on so many struggles, feelings, and themes that I relate to, and have lived, without making them Stéphanie’s entire life. Being trans isn’t all of who I am, it’s only part of who I am, and this film portrays that better than many other trans related shows/movies that I have seen.” Also, she adds, “about 7 seconds of this film feature Evangelion, so that’s also a win.” Drucker agrees, saying that “Wild Side is sexy, unpredictable, and features a menáge-a-trois relationship in which a trans woman is the object of desire — weak knees thinking about this one.”
5. Princesa
The first film in our top five is this 2001 Italian film about, again, a trans sex worker. In this film, Ingrid de Souza, a Brazilian trans woman, plays Fernanda, a 19-year-old Brazilian trans woman who travels to Milan in order to work as a sex worker and get enough money for her surgery. Like Women in Revolt, this is a rare film to actually star a trans woman. According to Trace Lysette, “the key word for me is authenticity, Princesa is a look into the life of a trans girl who journeys away from home, like so many of us do, and takes matters into her own hands to finance her gender transition while struggling to find a sense of community, family, and love all while dealing with the pressures of a world that leaves little space for us to thrive. It’s the rawest, truest narrative around the trans female experience I’ve seen.” Savannah adds that “one thing I think it does successfully is that it manages to neither condemn nor exotify her life on the streets.”
4. Ma Vie En Rose
Zackary Drucker says she “was 14 years-old when Ma Vie en Rose came to my local independent movie theater in Syracuse, NY. It was the first time I saw my adolescence, my experience of being young and trans, reflected on the big screen. I have a picture of myself in front of the movie poster that was taken the night that I saw it.” Many others felt similarly about this Belgian film about a a young trans girl played by Georges Du Fresne who is trying to live as the girl she is while her school, family and communty try to stop her. Ma Vie en Rose won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.
3. Tangerine
Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez in TANGERINE, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
This poll stops being a contest when we get to the top three movies as voted by trans women. These three films were so far ahead of the others that if they got half as many points, they would still be the top three.
While the trauma of this film is understandably too much for some trans women, others found it to be one of the most emotionally authentic portrayals of trans women on screen. I loved this film and said “This movie is, above all else, sweltering and electric. Most of the movie’s slow-burning heat comes from Mya Taylor’s amazingly deep and deliberate — and often uproariously comedic — performance as Alexandra, one of the film’s two transgender main characters. The film’s crackling and bubbling energy comes from Alexandra’s best friend and partner-in-crime Sin-Dee, played with energetic hilarity by fellow newcomer Kitana Kiki Rodriguez.” These two women go on a journey across Hollywood trying to find the woman who Sin-Dee’s boyfriend cheated on her with and getting to Alexandra’s musical performance at a local restaurant. For Lexi Adsit, it was “exciting to see sex-working trans women of color characters get screen time. There are so many girls who have not had their stories told and Tangerine not only does a good job of telling it, but does so in a way that emotionally connects a mainstream audience to the characters’ struggles without losing it’s authenticity.”
2. Gun Hill Road
When Gun Hill Road came out, many in the trans community started buzzing about the film. Not only was it a movie about a trans woman of color, but she was actually played by a trans woman of color! That twoc, Harmony Santana, took full advantage of the role she was given, delivering a powerhouse performance and earning an Independent Spirit Award nomination, making her the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an acting award in the US. Biko says that Santana “was the first young trans girl I saw in a feature film. I shared many experiences of her character in the film and her family dynamic mirrored my own.” Raquel Willis also loves Gun Hill Road, adding that she thinks “it was an eye-opener, intersectionality-wise, to focus on a Latina trans woman and, of course, the interesting dynamics she had in her relationship.” Drew adds that “the movie tackles a lot of topics surrounding the trans community that cisgender heteronormative people might consider taboo; transphobia, transmisogyny, sex work, ‘pumping” (black market surgery)’ and more.”
1. Paris is Burning
Number one is this legendary documentary that focuses on New York’s Ballroom scene and the people, including many trans women of color, who built a community there. Lysette says that with this film and The Queen, she “can’t help but be overwhelmed with appreciation for the women who stood before me. Rachel Harlow, Octavia St. Laurent, Crystal Labeija, Venus Xtravaganza, the list goes on. I see the strength in them and it gives me the strength to exist unapologetically, to make things better for the next generation of girls.” Biko points out that despite the fact that the film is over two decades old and the fact that it’s director Jennie Livingston profited off the backs of the QTPOC featured in the film (only $55,000 was distributed among 13 of the people featured), “it remains one of our greatest treasures. It’s a roadmap for the children and made me want to escape Ohio for NYC. PEPPER (LaBeija). OCTAVIA. DORIAN (Corey). I could go on.” Drew adds that Paris is Burning “is just simply EVERYTHING! Dorian Corey’s sassy commentary adds a legendary effect to the already groundbreaking documentary.”
Adsit also pointed out Livingston’s continued profiting off of the film and exploitation of the queer Black and Brown people within, but also praised the film.
I want to recognize the empowerment that, as a transgender woman of color, I experience watching Paris is Burning. This film not only seduced me as a viewer, but empowered me and gave me powerful women to look up to. Dorian Corey, for instance, throughout the movie drops some of the most amazing life knowledge that you wouldn’t be able to get from your own grandmother. Venus Xtravaganza, is unapologetic in her pursuit of a beautiful life. Octavia St. Laurent, is a powerful young black woman who has the skills and ability to chase her dreams regardless of her gender history. These are stories that are epics, in their own right.
Few films showcase the brilliance of trans women of color the way that Paris is Burning does. So many trans women have found themselves in the legends in this film, finally realizing that they’re not alone and that they have a history too.
A Trans Woman of Color Responds to the Trauma of “Tangerine”
Note from Trans Editor Mey Rude: A few weeks ago I saw the movie Tangerine and wrote about my thoughts on the movie and its stars, Mya Taylor and Kiki Kitana Rodriguez. When I saw it I was extremely pleased overall, but had a few issues with the film. In this essay, Trans Latina writer Morgan Collado talks about her own experiences and issues with the film in greater detail.
Why is it that trans women of color have to experience so much violence to remember that they have each other’s back?
That’s what I got from the movie Tangerine. I enjoyed it. Mya Taylor (who plays Alexandra, one of the two trans leads) and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez (who plays Sin-dee, the other) were fucking brilliant. They were not respectable, they were surviving in the best way they knew how and they were supporting each other even though it was difficult. I loved that they didn’t apologize for their lives or their existence.
Despite this, the audience still laughed at really inappropriate parts, showcasing the way that the film itself fails the story it’s trying to portray. And don’t get me wrong, the story is real. But the way it’s set up, how it’s shot, the progression of the plot — it’s clear that it is offering up the story to a mostly white, bougie audience. It was voyeuristic in the worst possible way. And while the two stars did have a lot of input into the making of the script, white men are still the ones who get the credit. The names of white men are on the script and white men directed the movie. The story was only made real by the beautiful performance of the actors.
One of the things that frustrated me was the way Razmik (an Armenian taxi driver who is a frequent customer of Alexandra and Sin-dee, played by Karren Karagulian) is juxtaposed to that terrible john. Razmik is no better then the dude that tried to rip off Alexandra. But the narrative manipulates you into feeling sorry for him. He is just a poor misunderstood dude who lies to his wife and keeps his desire secret. But he was just as awful as all the other non trans women in the film. He reduces trans women to what we can do for him sexually, fetishizes our bodies and refuses to publicly acknowledge that he desires trans women. He is still exploits them — he just pays well. Whats more, I don’t care at all about men and how they’re impacted by transmisogyny. Because the only reason Razmik and men like him get any kind of grief is because of transmisogyny. But it is not men who bear the brunt of that violence, it is us. Trans women are murdered for the same reasons that men are shamed. So for this film to focus almost half of the narrative on this man and how hard he has it, is very frustrating. Because even in films that are ostensibly about us, we still have to deal with men and their feelings. We still try to center male experiences.
The complicated relationship that these two trans women had with the men/love in their life was hard to watch. These were people who really and truly hated Sin-dee and Alexandra but said that they love them. They manipulate, take advantage of and abuse them. Chester was an awful abusive liar, but what choice does Sin-dee have? When validation and love come, even if it’s twisted and fucked up, you take it because otherwise you are just alone and sometimes the illusion of someone supporting you is better than nothing at all. I saw my experiences with men reflected in theirs and it fucking hurt. Trans women of color aren’t valued — again, we exist only to serve and perform for men. What does it mean that the people that are supposed to value us the most end up abusing us? What does it mean that trans women of color are often the victims of domestic violence but there is no narrative about it. We cannot be victims because we cannot be loved.
The final moment of the film comes after Sin-dee realizes that Alexandra slept with her boyfriend. Sin-dee is upset with Alexandra and tries to go off by herself but Sin-dee is assaulted, called a tranny faggot and gets urine splashed all over her. An intimate moment ensues where Alexandra takes care of Sin-dee and Sin-dee forgives Alexandra. That moment of sisterhood is so real. Nobody is going to look out for trans women of color except other trans women of color. We only matter to others when we are performing for them. But why does the film find it necessary to emphasize this sisterhood by subjecting them both to violence? What does it say about the director and the audience that this was the only way to bring them back together, because they have no other choice because the world is trying to kill them. This scene also shows them taking off their wigs which is just another instance of that trope saying that trans women’s femininity is not real. It’s a fabrication that comes off during intimate moments, cause what’s “real” is what’s on the “inside”. What does it mean that all the character development that occurred in that film was through trauma and violence? What does it mean that we can only see their vulnerability, their strength, their resilience through this moment of degendering?
I’m glad I went to see it. Seeing some of my experiences reflected in that film were really important and some of the ways they handle sex work and relationships is real. I appreciated the nuance in the way that they displayed men and their relationships to trans women. Trans women of color are almost always seen as objects to be controlled, held and exploited. The movie was clear about this. Clear that the ways men relate to trans women is toxic and fraught with dynamics of power that are abusive. Chester (Sin-dee’s boyfriend and pimp, played by James Ransone) was terrible to Sin-dee and he manipulated his way back into her good graces. Razmik was only interested in how these women could serve his pleasure. Both models — both through intimate relationship and client — capture the way that men are terrible to trans women time and again.
I also liked the way that Sin-dee was in control of her interaction with Dinah (the white, cis woman and sex worker who Chester cheats on Sin-dee with, played by Mickey O’Hagan). So often, cis white women will invalidate our womanhood. They will exclude us from women’s spaces and be generally awful to us. Transmisogyny is pervasive and cis white women are not exempt from perpetuating that. It was satisfying to see another trans woman of color in control of her interaction with someone who was actively denying her womanhood, who mocks Sin-dee’s desire to be valued and seen by her partner. It was satisfying to see her take what she needed from her when so often trans women of color are denied. White feminists might be inclined to read what Sin-dee does as violence against women but Sin-dee is not in a position of power over Dinah. And it was satisfying to watch. And while I do not trust the intentions of the white male director who shot that scene (because he would be perpetrating that violence), I do appreciate the moment for the satisfaction it gave me.
Even with these positive experiences, the voyeurism and almost lurid lens that the film was shot in makes it so that it only serves the consumption of cis white people. I cannot separate or ignore the fact that this was a film made by white men. And how these white men’s careers are going to profit from this film while the actress’s careers will most likely languish.
And why is it that so few TWOC (aside from Laverne Cox and Janet Mock) get any kind of airtime when it doesn’t involve trauma? Why are cis folks only interested in seeing us hurt, traumatized and alone? Those select few trans women who do get the spotlight, not just when they are murdered, are the exception and often tokenized by the spaces that they are in. You only ever hear about TWOC after we have been murdered. And in many ways this film is no different. It relies on the difficulty of our lives, it’s fetishizes the way our existence is marked by this world in order to titillate, to entice. The exotic other enchanting the “normal” cis white audience. And they leave the theater thinking that they know something, that they are more familiar with the lives of trans women. But our lives are not like in the movies.
After the last shot and the credits started rolling, I just broke down and cried. All that trauma and pain laid out like that so that people who don’t give a fuck about us, who just want to eat us alive — it was too much. It was so much to be in that audience, hearing their laughter and knowing we are just some fucking joke to them. That the things we face are a fantasy playground they can hang out in and then leave. That our lives only have meaning through the trauma experience. And don’t get me wrong, our trauma is real. But trauma isn’t the only thing about my existence that is real. But it’s the only thing cis folks care to see. Because a trans woman happy and loved is just so fucking weird to be real. Because seeing the full breadth of our lives is too much for people to handle. And because white people cannot help but exploit our lives.
In many ways, this film is similar to Paris is Burning. Brilliant and important and life saving while at the same time exploitative to the actors/subjects. The reviews of this film go on and on about Sean Baker and how he shot this film on a iPhone but where are the interviews asking how Mya Taylor felt shooting this film? Where are all the accolades for Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and her beautiful nuanced performance? Jennie Livingston made out like a bandit from that film and so will Sean Baker from this one. And the system is set up that only a white person could even get the funding for this project. TWOC doing this for ourselves doesn’t get the same level of attention or money. When will we get our coins? When will the work we do, the art we make, the lives we lead be for us, by us? When will white cis people stop exploiting our bodies for their profit?
“Tangerine” is Hilarious, Beautiful, Authentic, Casts Trans Women to Play Trans Women Leads
Tangerine is a movie that looks and feels like it takes place on a hotplate and is infused with white hot lightning, which at first seems a little strange given the film’s Christmas Eve setting and its holiday themes. But honestly, if the movie had been made any other way it wouldn’t have been as fun, as moving or as effective. And that’s not the only thing that makes it stand out. A huge part of what makes this movie so powerful and amazing is that its two main characters, both trans women, are actually played by trans women who are also incredibly talented actors. Because of that, and their involvement in crafting the film’s story and dialogue, the movie has an authenticity that is rarely found in films with trans characters.
As a trans woman, I’m pretty willing to watch most movies about or featuring trans women, and I’ve been waiting to fall in love with one of them for a long, long time. I came close when I saw Gun Hill Road, but in the end, I was really just enamored with Harmony Santana’s performance. It wasn’t until I saw Tangerine that I really felt butterflies.
This movie is, above all else, sweltering and electric. Most of the movie’s slow-burning heat comes from Mya Taylor’s amazingly deep and deliberate — and often uproariously comedic — performance as Alexandra, one of the film’s two transgender main characters. The film’s crackling and bubbling energy comes from Alexandra’s best friend and partner-in-crime Sin-Dee, played with energetic hilarity by fellow newcomer Kitana Kiki Rodriguez. Together their characters are an unstoppable force of nature moving through the streets of Hollywood. They inject so much life and vibrancy into the movie that you’ll feel like you’ll live till you’re 150.
Mya Taylor and Kitana Kiki Rodriguez in TANGERINE, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
If you break it down, Tangerine (which was shot entirely on iPhone 5s phones and ends up being intimate and gorgeous because of it) is a story of one day in the life of two friends. Sin-Dee and Alexandra both work as sex workers in LA. Sin-Dee’s recently been released from a four-week stint in jail, and when she meets up with Alexandra at Donut Time on Christmas Eve, she finds out that her boyfriend and pimp, Chester, cheated on her with a cis girl. The film follows Sin-Dee as she tries to track down the “fish” and find her Chester, and Alexandra as she hands out flyers for her singing performance that night. But really, the film is so much more than that. I wasn’t joking when I said it’s a great Christmas movie. In the end, Tangerine is all about the importance of chosen family and being there for the ones you love when they most need you. What could be more Christmas-y than that? The film’s finale is honestly one of the most touching and beautiful moments of true friendship I’ve seen on film in years.
While the two stars give off completely different energies, both have perfect comedic timing and the movie has a sense of humor unlike any other. They’re also a terrific comedic team. Sin-Dee’s humor comes from her over-the-top and out there personality, while Alexandra has the deadest deadpan sense of humor I’ve ever seen. Director and co-writer Sean Baker said that in crafting the film and dialogue, both Rodriguez and Taylor had a lot of input, and Rodriguez even brought the idea of Sin-Dee chasing down the “fish” after being inspired by one of their friends. Baker also said many of the film’s funniest lines were improvised by Rodriguez and Taylor.
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, James Ransone and Mya Taylor in TANGERINE, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Both Rodriguez and Taylor were brilliant. Rodriguez should be getting “funny sidekick” or even “funny main character” roles left and right. I’d watch her in anything. Taylor should have her door being knocked down by producers looking to cast the lead in their next big dramatic comedy. She has a real power and magnetism to her, the kind that makes stars. These two were able to deftly make the entire theater burst out in laughter over and over again, and then move the entire theater to tears fifteen minutes later.
It’s also true that this movie is harsh. It’s rough, it’s sometimes violent and the transphobia in it is very, very real. It doesn’t pretend that these women are perfect people or that trans women of color have it easy. Baker said that when he first got Taylor to sign on, she said that she’d be in the movie if he promised her two things. She told him, “Number one, I want you to show how brutal it is, how tough it is for the women out here, the hardship and what they put up with every single day. And number two, I want you to make this hilarious.”
There was something else I noticed while watching this movie. It was exciting, and not just because of the Mercury-flying-through-the-solar-system-at-one-hundred-thousand-miles-per-hour speed that it moves at, but because this might be first major motion picture I’ve ever seen that didn’t make me feel like it’s trans characters were being othered. Even in movies like Gun Hill Road and Boy Meets Girl, which both have trans women in major roles, and Paris Is Burning, which was full of trans people, I always felt like the intended audience was cis people and they almost didn’t expect someone like me to be watching. With Tangerine, I finally felt like I was a part of the intended audience. There were inside jokes, it wasn’t overly male- or cis-gazey, the characters seemed familiar. It was familiar. It was also downright wonderful, seeing such a huge number of trans women in a single movie. This was a world where trans women don’t exist in a vacuum, where they have other friends who are trans, it was just like the real world.
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mickey O’Hagan in TANGERINE, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
I’m not saying this movie was perfect. It focuses too much on another character, the taxi driver and regular customer of Alexandra and Sin-Dee, Razmik, played with skill by Karren Karagulian. He’s clearly meant to be a familiar face for all the cis people watching and an entry point into the world of transgender sex workers, so I do understand that his storyline makes the movie more accessible to a wider audience. Still, I would have rather seen more screen time for Sin-Dee and Alexandra. There were also a few times where I felt like maybe the audience was laughing at the characters because of who they were, and I’m specifically talking about them being trans women of color and sex workers, but that’s maybe more on the audience than on the filmmakers. Some of the violence is also fairly disturbing for a film that’s largely a comedy, but again, I feel like that was a part of the film’s goal in accurately portraying this world. None of these problems took me out of the the movie for long, though.
Other cis filmmakers should pay attention to how Baker and co-writer Chris Bergoch made this film. They did it the right way, finding actual trans women and asking them to help tell the story. Not only that, but according to Baker, even though the film is an independent movie and therefore isn’t making huge profits, “some of the proceeds are going to the (Los Angeles LGBT) center on McCadden… and that’s through our very generous and wonderful executive producers Mark and Jay Duplass and Marcus and Karrie Cox at Through Film.” You may remember Jay Duplass from his role as the almost always terrible Josh on Amazon Prime’s Transparent. Tangerine should be setting the new bar for what a movie about trans people is.
Eddie Redmayne will almost definitely get Oscar buzz for his performance as a trans woman in his upcoming film The Danish Girl, and Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall will probably get nationwide distribution. But if you’re looking for a film that accurately portrays the lives of trans women, has amazing performances by trans women of color and tells a great story about trans women, this is the one you should go to. It really is a shame that those movies will get the attention and praise that this one deserves. Things don’t necessarily have to be that way, though; people need to get out and see this movie. If it’s popular in LA and New York and Toronto, it will move to more cities. If it’s popular in those cities, it will move to even more. Tangerine is the type of movie that is going to be talked about for the rest of the summer, the rest of the year and probably for a while to come, so the smart move would be to go and see it now.
Tangerine is currently playing in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto, but will open in more cities in the coming weeks. To find out more about the movie, you can like it on Facebook or check its website to see where it will be playing near you.