Trans in Film and Video

Made for French TV film Il est elle

Andrea Foret

On November 1 French broadcast television channel TF1 aired a made for TV film titled Il est elle  (He is She). The film tells the story of Juju, a teenager born male who feels like a girl and wants to change gender. 19-year-old transgender actress Andrea Foret, portrays Juju, a.k.a Emma. In an interview with Parisian conducted on Sunday, October 31, she spoke about her own transition and how it helped her acting in the movie. The character’s experience was more intense than Foret’s as she had the support of her family from the beginning. Juju is in high school when they announce that they are a girl. High school is hard enough for cisgender people. Foret had doubts when the story was pitched to her but after reading the script she signed on. She said in a recent interview with the Paris Beacon, “It is a very serious subject that is hardly talked about on television and which has been treated with a lot of respect. I think fiction will reach anyone who feels bad about themselves and has difficulty expressing themselves.” Here’s hoping the film will be released in the States so we can all enjoy her acting.

Also From France

Alexandre Wetter

The French Film Miss released in 2020 stars  Alexandre Wetter as a young man named Alex Dufresnoy who, at the age of nine, proclaimed to his schoolmates in class that his goal was to be Miss France. Directed by Ruben Alves the film follows Alex as he seriously begins to prepare to enter the contest. It’s billed as a dramedy and the director uses a quirky group of characters surrounding the star to balance the drama with plenty of irony and humor. Among the supporting characters it is our duty to point out Amanda Lear. Ms. Lear has long been mysterious about her birth sex so her popping up in a film about gender identity is interesting. Also in the supporting cast is someone recognizable to fans of the Netflix show Call My Agent. Stéfi Celma was the receptionist at the talent agency ASK. In Miss she is Alex’s competition as Miss PACA. Enjoy the subtitled trailer below.

I Am Jazz Returns

Jazz

TLC‘s hit series starring Jazz Jennings, I Am Jazz, is back for season 7. It arrives on November 30, 2021 and fans are clearly very excited. When the trailer for the new season arrived fans were also taken aback over the amount of weight Jazz had put on. She is attending Harvard and they say students put on weight when they join other scholars in a college setting. Jazz has put on 100 pounds since season 6 of her show. In June, Jazz opened up about her binge eating disorder, and said she wanted to address her weight gain issues and hold herself accountable. We wish her good luck as she battles her eating disorder.

SF Transgender Film Festival

The 24th San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) returns online this November 11–14 with seven new programs celebrating cutting-edge transgender and gender nonconforming filmmaking. The festival was founded in 1997 as the world’s first transgender film festival. Due to ongoing concern over COVID the festival will be online only. Learn more on the festival website.

Meet Nava Mau, Star of Genera+ion

Nava Mau

HBO Max has announced that there won’t be a second season of a show that’s been called “the queerest show on cable”. It’s called Genera+ion and was about teens discovering their sexualities in Orange County, California. It starred Mexico born, San Antonio-raised actress Nava Mau who portrayed Ana, the transgender aunt of the show’s teen character Greta. Ana becomes Greta’s guardian after her mother is deported to Mexico. The show was only set to run for one season but fans want more and have flooded social media with demands for another season. Mau recalled in an interview recently about the roles that were available just a few years ago that showed trans characters as hookers or victims. Having the opportunity to play a trans character who goes beyond that label has begun to become more common. Mau said, “I sometimes feel like I still have to pinch myself, because I can’t quite believe we have seen so much change happen in such a short amount of time.” Read a long interview with Mau in the San Antonio Current. Look for the show one HBO Max.

Big Sky’s Trans Actress is Back for Season 2

Jesse James Keitel

Jerrie Kennedy is a character from the TV show Big Sky. In the first season of the show she was a kidnapped transgender sex worker. The actor portraying Kennedy is Jesse James Keitel. Eventually she was rescued and helped to bring her kidnapper to justice. In season two, which is now running on ABC Thursday nights at 10, Jerrie has become a private investigator who works for the detective agency that found and freed her. The emphasis is off of her transgender status and she becomes another woman working for the agency. One who may end up in a romance with a coworker. Kudos to Big Sky for including a transgender character played by a trans woman. Get more info on the show from Cheat Sheet.

That’s all we’ve got on transgender in film and video for this month. That’s a wrap!

Tags: featured, film, Transgender

Category: Media, Transgender Fun & Entertainment