Trans Filmmaker Sam Feder packs an awful lot of information into the 100 mins of this excellent new documentary Disclosure. Somehow he makes it totally compelling and not the least bit stuffy, and we were shocked to discover in fact how as gay men, we really knew so little about our brothers and sisters in the trans community.
The original title of the documentary when it premiered at Sundance Film Festival was Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, which makes a great deal of sense as Feder focuses much of his time on how representation of cross dressers and then transgender people on screen affected their acceptance in society.
As gay children growing we struggled to find role models to follow and ape as we battled with our sexual identity, Feder’s film however makes us (for the first time?) appreciate how so very much harder it was for our peers dealing with their gender identity .
It is shocking to realize that as much as gay men and women were horrified by the portrayal of ourselves by Hollywood, it was so much worse for the trans community. In fact as Feder works his way up to the present time where there is a great deal more realness about the gay characters are represented on film and TV, trans characters are still for the most part cliched stereotypes .
The award-winning actress Laverne Cox is one of the many trans actors/actresses who give witness to the struggle for acceptance and decent roles in a misogynist society and industry. It was pointed out that even enlightened producers like Ryan Murphy originally only had trans roles in Nip/Tuck when they were stereotype sex workers who were inevitable killed, and he has now evolved to the point that Pose’s trans characters are so much more authentic.
Cox recounts a time in 2014 when she and model Carmen Carrera were on chat show hosted by Katie Couric to discuss their experiences as high-profile transgender women using their platforms to bring issues of trans justice to national attention. Instead Couric was mostly interested in talking to both women about their genitalia, in order to “educate” others who may not be “familiar with transgenders.” Cox slapped her down good and hard, but it is distressing to witness that people like Couric we would regard as ‘enlightened’ should be so ignorant and thoughtless
We are warned in the documentary that the paradox is that the more that trans people are seen the more they are violated. The more positive representation, the more confidence the community gains often puts them in more danger. The alarming rate of murder to transgender people …. mainly women of color ……bears witness to that
Some articulated so perfectly a very sobering thought that we have to be careful and remember when a few trans people are elevated vast majority are still struggling.
This must-see documentary debuts on NETFLIX on June 19th
