#sam feder

[stainedglassgardens]

Jen Richards in Disclosure (Sam Feder, 2020)

[marypickfords]

Disclosure: Trans Lives On Screen (Sam Feder, 2020)

[trans-advice]

Laverne Cox, Sam Feder: “Trans Lives Depend on Owning Our Stories”

Trans liberation is the latest frontline in the struggle for civil rights. In their new documentary, Disclosure, director Sam Feder and producer Amy Scholder use over a century’s worth of film to show that trans identities have long been at the center of our collective cultural history. They join four-time Emmy nominated actress and Emmy winning producer Laverne Cox in a groundbreaking conversation with Laura on how trans people are reclaiming their stories and transforming the power structures in Hollywood. They describe the experience of assembling the first majority trans film crew and interviewing an incredible range of trans actors and media critics to understand how media shapes attitudes, behaviors, and laws about gender and trans lives. With film history as a background, Laura and guests explore what’s next for trans liberation — and the bearing it has on the continuing struggle for human rights for all.

Guests

Laverne Cox, Executive Producer, Disclosure (https://lavernecox.com/)

Sam Feder, Director, Disclosure (https://www.samfederfilms.com/)

Amy Scholder, Producer, Disclosure (http://www.disclosurethemovie.com/)

Credits

Executive Producer: Laura Flanders

Creative Director: Matt Colaciello

Communications Director: Jeremiah Cothren

Editors: Charlotte Carpenter, Mercedes Gorostiaga, David Neumann

Radio & Podcast Producer: Jeannie Hopper

Co-Director Development: Dominic Marcella

Story Producer: Sabrina Artel

Motion Graphics: Nat Needham

Communications Associate: Mercedes Gorostiaga

Production Assistant: Ryan Hotes

[asafilmstudent]

Trans Visibility: Film Edition

[dakotadanger]

Readers of this blog will know that I am obsessed with trans media. After decades of being portrayed by cis people as tragic deviants, we are finally starting to see transgender people playing themselves in roles written by trans people, directed by trans people, and produced by trans people. It’s an amazing feeling to finally recognize yourself in characters on screen.

Disclosure (2020) is a documentary about the history of trans people in media. It starts at the turn of the century, with depictions of gender non-conformity and cross-dressing alongside racism in the films of D. W. Griffith. We see trans people being played as a joke, or as sex workers, or as mentally ill and dangerous, or as something deceptive and disgusting that is met with nausea and vomiting. On talk shows, we were asked intrusive questions that focused on bodies instead of humanity. We see cisgender men win awards for playing trans women, over and over again, for forty years.

All of this is told through the experiences of real trans people. Their experience is front and center as they share how these images affected them growing up and discovering themselves. This shows just how complex these depictions are. Something that is problematic can still mean a lot to someone, because it was the first time they saw what was possible for them, even if it was an unfair depiction. It’s said in the beginning of the film that the biggest problem in trans representation is that there’s not enough of it. We’re left hanging onto stumbling, wrong versions of ourselves, because it’s all that’s there. But that’s changing.

It’s disappointing that non-binary people are not well-represented in this film. The problem with non-binary people in film and tv is that they are assumed to be binary and thus erased. In Disclosure, trans men and women discuss how representation affected them, but we don’t hear the same from non-binary people. It is only mentioned that some of them are on tv now. It’s a shame they’re not more included in this film, and we must make sure that they are not left behind as binary trans people progress in the world.

That’s my only critique of this film. I watched it twice over the weekend and I’m really obsessed with it. Here are some takeaways for trans and cis folks.

Cis people: I hope you learn from this that trans people are not what you have probably seen in tv and film. I hope you understand how it feels to only see people like you as disgusting monsters on screen growing up, and I hope you try to do better by us. I hope you think about this next time you hear someone laugh at anything gender non-conforming.

Trans people: This film might be hard for you to watch. I hope you see that we have always been around, and for as long as media has done us wrong, they couldn’t take their eyes off of us. We are so special, whether or not the world can see it. Being trans is a gift.

[01sentencereviews]

The Netflix documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, now streaming on Netflix, focuses too much on representation, to the detriment of

[drag-tween]

Quarantine buddies Jen Richards (Mrs. Fletcher) and Brian Michael Smith (9-1-1: Lone Star). Both appear in the documentary Disclosure, which debuts on the streaming service known for its cancel culture, Netflix (i.e., Sense8, Tuca And Bertie) 19 June. Via Instagram

[movieslicereviews]

MOVIE REVIEW: DISCLOSURE

WARNING

if you watch

DISCLOSURE

the excellent new documentary

about representation of transgender people 

in Hollywood,

you may never look at

beloved movies like

THE CRYING GAME

the same again

and you may never look at

childhood favorites like

ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE

the same again!

DISCLOSURE

is one of those rare films

that has the power to let us reexamine what we 

“THOUGHT WAS OK”

and listen to perspectives that have been long neglected in mainstream culture.

Transgender celebrities and scholars including

Orange Is The New Black’s Laverne Cox

and

Matrix co-director Lana Wachowski,

not only give heartfelt reflections

of the negative portrayal

of Transgender people in Hollywood,

but reflect on how this negative portrayal

can lead to dangerous ramifications

OF ALL TRANSGENDER PEOPLE

celebrity or not.

DISCLOSURE

should be required viewing

and is not only the best documentary I have seen this year

but the most powerful film I have seen in some time!

DISCLOSURE

Four stars (out of four)

Now streaming on Netflix