THE FILM (original) (raw)

ABOUT

DISCLOSURE is an unprecedented, eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, share their reactions and resistance to some of Hollywood’s most beloved moments. Grappling with films like A Florida Enchantment (1914), Dog Day Afternoon, The Crying Game, and Boys Don’t Cry, and with shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word, and Pose, they trace a history that is at once dehumanizing, yet also evolving, complex, and sometimes humorous. What emerges is a fascinating story of dynamic interplay between trans representation on screen, society’s beliefs, and the reality of trans lives. Reframing familiar scenes and iconic characters in a new light, director Sam Feder invites viewers to confront unexamined assumptions, and shows how what once captured the American imagination now elicit new feelings. DISCLOSURE provokes a startling revolution in how we see and understand trans people.

WHY NOW?

We are at a crossroads as social movements are in direct conversation with Hollywood. DISCLOSURE is the manifestation of this moment for transgender people and their representation. The increasing visibility of transgender people is exhilarating, and signals the beginnings of positive social change.

Nevertheless, violence against trans people persists including the surge of efforts to constrain transgender civil rights. From current bathroom bills that paint trans women as male predators, to a Presidential military ban on trans service, there is an attempt to legislate trans people out of public life. Using history to illuminate the present, DISCLOSURE explores this fear.

DISCLOSURE shows audiences that decades-old stereotypes, memes, and tropes in the media both form and reflect our understanding of trans issues. They have shaped the cultural narrative about transgender people, and inform everything from dating and domestic violence, to school policy and national legislation. Since 80% of the population have never met a transgender person, all they know is rooted in media depictions, which are predominantly problematic and have rarely included participation by actual trans people. DISCLOSURE is aimed at that 80%.