TransTainment 10/25/21

Billy Porter

The Pose star, Billy Porter has a beef with Vogue and Harry Styles. Styles appeared on the cover of Vogue and in a photo spread wearing dresses and other feminine attire. Porter feels as if Vogue went into Billy Porter territory and took his style for Styles to wear but not really be invested in like Porter, who is known for attending events in custom tailored dresses and other clothes with a definite feminine bent. Harry Styles has expressed an attraction for clothes found in the women’s section and has stated he enjoys wearing blouses and other mix and match stuff. He hadn’t worn a dress in public though and Porter has. What should they do? Maybe they should vogue it out and give us the treat of two guys wearing fabulous outfits? Get more on the rivalry from insider.com.
While we are talking about Billy Porter here’s music news featuring him. He has released a dance track titled Children. Give it a listen right here.

The Sundance Institute has revealed a new focus on transgender filmmakers of color to add to its suite of development programs for artists who have been excluded in the past. Trans Possibilities Intensive has picked six artists for the three-day virtual program. They include Atlanta-based trans actress, producer and filmmaker Ava Davis, trans, queer Xicane filmmaker, actor and lifelong musician StormMiguel Florez, Salvadoran-American filmmaker, actor, writer, model and intersex activist River Gallo, writers Carol Grant, Mitchell (MiSha) Owens, and Black trans/non-binary writer Savannah Ward. For more information on the artists and the program visit The Hollywood Reporter.

Kalki Subramaniam

From India: A transgender ‘artivist’, writer and actor who lives in Pollachi in Tamil Nadu, Kalki Subramaniam is the founder of Sahodari Foundation, which works for the empowerment of transgender persons in India. Learn more about her from The Hindustan Times.

Wolfe Releasing has acquired worldwide rights to transgender drama Death and Bowling from transgender writer/director Lyle Kash. The film, which won the Narrative Feature Audience Award at Outfest L.A., was made by predominantly trans cast and crew. It stars Will Krisanda, Tracy Kowalski, Faith Eileen Bryan, Denise Turkan, Leontine White Doster and D’Lo. Wolfe Releasing, one of the leading distributors of LGBTQ+ films. For more info visit the director’s website.

Bamby Salcedo

Rosario Dawson is one of the producers of the documentary LA QueenCiañera, by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Peira follows Mexican-American transgender activist Bamby Salcedo as she prepares a 50th birthday celebration in Los Angeles attended by the people who helped her survive. The film premiered at OutFest Los Angeles in August and will be released in Spain on November 12.

Bamby Salcedo grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico in poverty. Her father moved to the U.S. when she was young and after he left her mother abused her psychologically, and her step-father did sexually. She tried to find her father, but he had started a new life in the U.S. so she ended up on the streets of Los Angeles turning tricks to get by. The film documents her fiftieth birthday party and shows how a transgender, HIV positive, recovering addict, former sex worker, and activist for the Latin transgender community, celebrates her birthday with the 49 women who made her who is she. The director has more to say about the production in an interview with msn.com.

Evie Macdonald

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s kids dramatic mini series First Day, starring transgender actress Evie Macdonald, has won an International Kids Emmy Award.

The series has been picked up by Hulu in the US and CBBC in the UK, as well as other countries around the world. The story follows a transgender girl who is just starting high school. Not only does she have to navigate her way through the days with all the problems any kid has when starting at a new school, she has find the courage to be her true self.  Get more on the story =from Qnews.

Patti Harrison

American actress, writer, and comic Patti Harrison is set to make her U.K. stand-up debut next month. Harrison is known for her television and film work. Most recently she was in the cast of the Addy Bryant show Shrill, and starred with Ed Helms in Together Together. Rolling Stone magazine said Harrison is “poised to become the most visible working trans comedian in America.” But first she will conquer the hearts and minds of the U.K. She will be at the Soho Theatre for a week-long run, starting on November 8. Break a leg, kid.

Daphne Dorman

Daphne Dorman was a transgender comic who opened a show for Dave Chappelle in San Francisco. The two began talking and in the course of conversation Dorman’s family said they became friends. On October 11, 2019 Daphne Dorman committed suicide. Her reasons for that action are not known. Some believe it is the anti-trans “joke” told in Chappelle’s special The Closer bothered her much more than she said. Her sister said, in an interview with The Daily Beast, that “Daphne was in awe of Dave’s graciousness. She did not find his jokes rude, crude, off-coloring, off-putting, anything. She thought his jokes were funny. Daphne understood humor and comedy—she was not offended. Why would her family be offended?”

Chappelle said, at the end of The Closer, that he would not be doing any jokes about the LGBTQ communities in the future. Here’s hoping the controversy dies down and he sticks to that promise.

That’s it for this edition of TransTainment! See you next month.

Tags: entertainment news, featured

Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Fun & Entertainment