This film is currently unavailable
Disclosure
A well-timed and thrilling analysis of the history of transgender stories on screen, from the silent era to the present day.
Director: Sam Feder
Overview
Cinema and TV have a difficult history in reinforcing narrow mainstream gender norms and have often painted LGBTIQ+ people as dangerous. Like a trans-focused sequel to the seminal documentary The Celluloid Closet, this fascinating film wrangles with the history of problematic depictions and celebrates the unravelling of various stereotypes.
A labour of love for director Sam Feder (whose last documentary was Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant Danger, a portrait of the pioneering writer and activist) the film features Laverne Cox at the helm and a cast of big hitters, including the Wachowski sisters and Chaz Bono. But it achieves much more than a rollcall of clips and celebrity talking heads. There’s fascinating insight from Professor Susan Stryker, who places trans stories at the birth of cinema with the invention of the cinematic cut in the 1910s, and Yance Ford, who probes the horrible history of the blackface in the same era, drawing parallels with the handling of theatrical cross-dressing. Touching on titles as wide-ranging as Yentl, Psycho, and Tootsie, the film also exposes a downward trajectory in positive representation during in the 1990s, as evinced by TV shows like Jerry Springer and the infamous final scene of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, two of the most appalling and damaging examples cited. As an overdue assassination of troublesome tropes, Disclosure is absorbing and informative, providing a timely history lesson at the crossroads of change. As part of BFI Flare at Home, this film is only available until Wednesday April 2 2020.
Related
Architecton Architecton
Documentary 2024 98 mins Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.
Hotel Monterey Hotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 mins Silent Director: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.
Là-bas Là-bas
Documentary 2006 79 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.
Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.
De l’autre côté De l’autre côté
Documentary 2002 99 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Made over 20 years ago, this exploration of the lives of Mexican migrants and the cruelties of borders makes for equally urgent viewing today.
No Home Movie No Home Movie
Documentary 2015 118 mins Director: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s rigorously observational portrait of her late mother takes on a whole new significance in the wake of the director’s own premature passing.
Amores perros Amores perros
Drama 2000 148 mins Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu's (Birdman, The Revenant) gripping debut feature is a savagely brilliant triptych around the theme of animalistic desires.
Drugstore Cowboy Drugstore Cowboy
Drama 1989 101 mins Director: Gus Van Sant
Matt Dillon and his not-so-merry band of junkies rob pharmacies and cheat death.
Maurice Maurice
Drama 1987 140 mins Director: James Ivory
Merchant Ivory’s landmark adaptation of E M Forster’s classic LGBTQ+ novel and a precursor to the James Ivory-scripted Call Me By Your Name, starring Hugh Grant, James Wilby and Rupert Graves.
Architecton Architecton
Documentary 2024 98 mins Director: Viktor Kossakovsky
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.
Layla Layla
2024 100 mins Director: Amrou Al-Kadhi
A British-Palestinian drag performer catches the eye of a strait-laced white man in Amrou Al-Kadhi’s stunning, semi-autobiographical debut.
When I Saw You When I Saw You
Drama 2014 94 mins Director: Annemarie Jacir
Following the Six-Day War in 1967, a young Palestinian refugee boy yearns to be reunited with his father and joins a band of freedom fighters.