Plodding with no illuminating moments. ‘Will Ferrell and his close friend, former head writer at SNL, Harper Steele embark on a cross-country road trip together
Category: Film
Review of film: Anhell69
The Chronic Youth Film Festival is curated by the Barbican Young Film Programmers, whose intake apparently changes on a yearly basis. I suppose that avoids anyone getting -gasp- old. The two young women who presented the screening looked as if they were early-twenties, so not that young. Not proper Village of the Damned anyway. A young man with a camera crouched nearby, snapping away, as they gave their introductory speech, stood stiffly together, no doubt having flashbacks to prefecture and assemblies.
Glen or Glenda? and the History of Trans Healthcare
I would have said it had Virginia Prince’s fingerprints all over of it, except the film predates Prince’s Transvestia magazine by several years. Nevertheless, Wood clearly spent time speaking to such men (probably Prince) and the psychiatrists who treated the same, as the description and depiction of transvestism is all too familiar to those who know it. A reminder also that gender identity ideology was already fully formed before most of us were even born.
Review of film: Desire Lines
Before we watched the film, Rosskam wanted to contextualise where things were right now for trans people, in the US there were ‘522 anti-trans bills’ and the UK had just banned puberty blockers for children. These were dangerous times. There was also ‘genocide’ in Gaza and we were watching governments ‘essentially decide who gets to be human and who gets to live’. Although the two issues may not seem related, they were, it was to do with the way governments ‘restricted bodies’.
Review of documentary: Life of Kai
The documentary is piss poor in every sense, lack of direction, lack of interest in its subject. Absolutely no nuance. Cloying animated interlinking segments. It’s like the whole thing was put together by people wearing boxing gloves. Not to mention the unforgivable pun in the film’s title. But for all that it is still incredibly revealing. There’s no hiding the grooming, nor My Genderation’s intimate involvement in pushing Kai, and others like her, along the path of an irreversible transition.
Film review of ‘Orlando, My Political Biography’ with Paul B. Preciado
It was packed in the Barbican’s biggest screen, filled with lots of trans-identified females of all ages (but mostly younger) eager to see, who I guess must be a hero to them, Paul B. Preciado. Preciado is now 53 years of age but is blessed with youthful looks and an even more youthful mind (some might say adolescent, but I’ll get onto that). According to the Wikipedia entry, Paul was previously Beatriz and transitioned in 2014, i.e. aged forty-four years. An internet search for Beatriz bought up this article from 2013, from when she was on the brink of her ‘transition’, being interviewed for the book she is most famous for – Testo Junkie : Sex, Drugs and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era.
The Lies They Tell 
You must be logged in to post a comment.