Trans in Film & Video 5/27/24

Karla Sofia Gascón

The “breakout” film of Cannes 2024 is Emilia Perez. It was described by Vulture film reviewer Rachel Handler who it would be like if Pedro Almodovar did a remake of Mrs. Doubtfire but featured the plot of a hard bitten crime drama—with music and dancing. That’s right. It’s a musical. The film tells the story of a crime kingpin called Manitas who contacts a criminal defense lawyer and asks her to help him completely disappear. And, to assist him in transitioning to live as a woman. Manitas becomes Emilia and she contacts her abandoned family pretending to be a distant relative of Manitas. All goes well for a time and Emilia and Mantas’s wife start a non-profit to help the families of thousands of missing people to learn what happened to their loved ones and in many cases find their bodies. But, you know there would be a but, the plan for a peaceful non-criminal existence unravels. The star of the film is a 52-year-old transgender actress Karla Sofia Gascón. She plays both Manitas and Emilia with a transformation that Vulture says this of, “Her onscreen transformation from hardened, dysphoric crime lord to warm, loving matriarch, is so natural and magnetic that it should propel her to instant stardom.”  The film features Selena Gomez as Manitas’s wife, and Zoe Saldaña as the lawyer. It got an 11 minute standing ovation at Cannes talks are in progress to bring it to Netflix.

While some projects win big other ventures get dumped. Fans of drag queens fighting will be sad to learn that a video game called Drag Her! has been cancelled. The game would have featured the avatars of Asia O’Hara and BenDeLaCreme, among others. The developer said that even with a Kickstarter and grants the company didn’t have enough money to finish the project. Some good news is it has been released, unfinished, online. There are only three players, not the seven that the full version would have had. Check it out. Or watch this YouTube trailer.

Richie Koh

In Singapore a film beginning production tells the story of a drag queen who goes home to help their mother deal with dementia. The queen is played by cis actor Richie Koh and the film is titled A Good Child. His character sees an opportunity to replace his mother’s disappearing memories and convince her that she has always had a daughter. Since filming hasn’t begun there are no photos of Koh in drag but he is pretty, even without makeup.The film will be released in Singapore in 2025.

The Transgender Film Center has released the identities of its first Career Development Lab cohort. The nonprofit helps fund film and TV projects by trans creators. Get more information from them.

There were a decent number of LGBTQ+ characters featured in television shows in the current season but many of those shows or those characters won’t be coming back for the next season. GLAAD says that more than a third won’t return.

Zíon Moreno in Gossip Girl.

GLAAD says “Over the past year, the number of LGBTQ+ characters fell by 31% on broadcast TV, by 45% on cable, and by 0.8% on streaming. On top of that, 170 of the 468 LGBTQ+ characters (36%) included in the 2023-2024 edition of the report will not be returning, whether due to series cancellations, an anthology or miniseries format, or a character dying or leaving the show.” Trans characters on TV went from 32 characters down this year to 24.

While some trans characters are going away let’s look at some. In honor of Transgender Awareness Week the Cherry Picks website made a list of trans characters in TV and film.

I Saw the TV Glow is now playing in movie theaters.The horror drama has a plot that many transgender people relate to. Two fans of a TV show that they watch religiously are dismayed when the show is cancelled. Their dismay turns to terror as their reality begins to unravel. Learn more from the CBR website.

If you like messed up rom-coms that don’t recycle tired cliches of the genre you may be interested in watching Peacock’s new comedy series Laid. The premise is a woman finds out her former lovers are dying in unusual ways and she must go back through her sex timeline to confront her past to move forward. Eight new guest stars have been added to the cast and one of them is Pose star Indya Moore. No word on what her character will be but if we find out we’ll  let you know in a future column. The show is based on the Australian series of the same name.

That’s it for this week’s Trans in Film & Video!

Tags: featured, film, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment