Trans in Film and Video 1/9/23
Kayleigh McKee and Kiku.
A Japanese anime titled One Piece has garnered headlines in the anime world by casting a transgender actress to dub the character Kiku into English. The actress is Kayleigh McKee. While some forms of anime use LGBTQ characters as comedy elements One Piece has always treated Kiku with respect. She is a fierce warrior and the most popular member the show’s Nine Red Scabbards. Learn more from One Piece Fandom.
Aus Wang as Nikki in Tofu.
Director Gbenga Komolafe set out to “create a story that would centre on the truth of trans life, but provide a sense of hope and optimism, without dulling the edges of an often fraught experience.” The short film that resulted from his efforts is title Tofu and focuses on Nikki, a young transgender woman played by Aus Wang, who’s looking for cash to fund her breast augmentation. While Nikki has a sugar daddy he refuses to help financially saying that he likes her unaltered bust line. Nikki has no choice but to take employment at her mother’s struggling tofu restaurant, hence the film’s title. Learn more about the film from the Dazed website.
Framing Agnes is a film spawned from an astonishing discovery made by Chase Joynt and sociologist Kristen Schilt’s in the UCLA Gender Archives. After opening a file drawer they found all of the case files detailing the life of a trans woman named Agnes. In the 1950s she claimed to be intersex in order to receive gender-affirming surgery that she would otherwise have been deprived of. Joynt and Schilt made a documentary short about Agnes in 2019. Using the case files of interviews with Agnes as the script they have expanded the story to feature length. Set in the context of a ‘50s television talk show Joynt portrays the show’s host who interviews Agnes and other trans people taken from the gender archives. Zachary Drucker of Transparent fame takes on the role of Agnes; poet Max Wolf Valerio, author of the 2006 memoir, The Testosterone Files, plays Henry, who was born a girl in 1917; Angelica Ross (Pose) channels the soul of Georgia, a Black trans woman faced with far more obstacles than her white peers; Dickinson director Silas Howard inhabits the skin of trans man Denny; screen newcomer Stephen Ira captures the youthfulness of 15-year-old Jimmy, and Jen Richards (Mrs. Fletcher) as Barbara.
At this time Framing Agnes in not available for streaming.
Category: Media
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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