TransNation
|
TransNation |
by Jacob Anderson-Minshall
 Film Still from Transparent |
No
one used to give a second thought to the behind-the-scenes producers of
DykeTV, the nation's first cable access program "by for and about
lesbians" founded in the early 90s. But when Julien Rosskam came
out as trans, he knew that could all change. Not even sure if he should
still be allowed to work in a dyke space, Rosskam tendered his resignation.
For-tunately – for both the filmmaker and the acclaimed New York-based
cable program – his boss refused to accept it.
"She said, essentially,
that the times were changing and people need to change along with them,"
Rosskam remembers gratefully.
Part of that change, for Dyke TV, has been an expansion of their definition
of 'women' to include "past, present and future female-bodied and/or
identified."
Still, Rosskam –the director
of the film Transparent – admits that there have been instances
when people withdrew their support for the venerable lesbian program after
learning that a transman was "not only working at Dyke TV, but was
one of the few people running the place."
Rosskam is saddened by what
he calls "this chasm in the dyke/trans community," and he hopes
that his work will further a reparative communication between the overlapping
communities.
"It is a very touchy subject that I generally think people don’t
want to talk about," Rosskam explains. "People act like the
conversation already happened, but the truth is it really never did."
Rosskam is currently editing a documentary,
Boy I Am, which addresses these issues by exploring "this
notion that to transition from female to male is somehow inherently anti-feminist."
Boy, Rosskam says, interviews FTMs, their partners, lesbians
and academics about "their thoughts on transmen and how they fit
or don't fit in the dyke community and the trajectory of the feminist
movement." Boy I Am (www.boyiam.com)
will hit the GLBT festival circuit in Summer 2006.
Rosskam's debut film,
Transparent, was a hit at film fests last summer, where it earned
rave reviews for its portrayal of female-to-male transgendered parents,
and gained Rosskam kudos in Curve magazine's list of top ten emerging
filmmakers. Focusing on universal themes of family and child-parent relationships,
Transparent touched a broad audience, reaffirming queer viewers and prodding
straight audiences.
"Seeing trans people in
a parenting role," Rosskam argues, "Seems to somehow be disarming
to straight folks who maybe were unsure of how they felt about [transgender
parents].
"I was dealing with
my own issues of wanting to transition and also wanting to have kids and
not knowing how to reconcile that," filmmaker Jules Rosskam says,
describing the impetus behind his documentary. "I knew I wanted to
make a movie about the trans community but I didn't want to do another
'trans 101' film."
The auteur focused on
FTM "mothers" because as he says, "Our culture puts a huge
emphasis on women giving birth, and treats it as the most feminine thing
one can do. So then you have to wonder what happens to our notions of
gender when men are having babies."
Rosskam calls the breadth of
Transparent "anthropological" in its diversity. The
19 parents involved in the project came from 14 states, varying socio-economic
backgrounds, and very different realities, providing a voice to a middle-American
transgender community that often is overlooked.
"I was tired of this
idea that trans people only live in big cities," Rosskam says. "Not
to mention the [myth] that transmen are all white, well-educated on gender
theory and middle- to upper-class. The film was a lot about deconstructing
those stereotypes." Unfortunately for those who missed Transparent
on its 2005 festival tour, the film is currently only available directly
through Rosskam (info@
transparentthemovie.com). Still, if you haven't seen the film, you
should try to do so – even if that means pressuring a distribution
company to add the beautiful, groundbreaking documentary to its roster.