27/50
He confronts his past and present in an erotic journey of self-discovery
Story
An Iranian-American trans man goes back in time to the LGBTQ+ archives to understand his sexuality. This is a documentary about gay trans people who are female-male and female-male. It mainly deals with life after the transition, with little emphasis on the transition process itself.
There are two main categories of subjects
This also applies to those with a male body orientation. One of them is Lou Sullivan, an F-to-M trans activist who was also a gay-identifying pioneer. He is represented by many excerpts from interviews he gave on television, as well as texts by one of his correspondents.
It is wrapped in narrative drama
The second is a series of interviews with different trans people of different looks and anatomy – one male subject insisted on keeping his vagina. They often have trouble finding intimate partners, although Trans nights in gay baths are very helpful because they don’t have to explain themselves. A trans-Iranian-American man (who left Iran shortly after the revolution) goes to a queer archive in Chicago to do research and befriends a younger, boyish trans person.
The Iranian angle is heightened by discussions of Iran’s "omelet" food
This hybrid approach added interest and made it feel more than the dryness of a typical documentary. I saw it as part of a film festival with actors and a director. The director mentioned that the Iranian actor helped create a short "proof of concept" to seek funding, and this was continued by adding information about Iran to the script.