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Journalism of Courage
When Anne met Lea 8212; a very different proposition from When Harry Met Sally, on virtually every conceivable level 8212; the occasion seemed ordinary enough. Anne was the mother of a teenage musical prodigy. Lea was a journalist researching a profile on the girl.
Or so that was the facade, not the first Lea had shown to Anne, as we discover in the film Another Woman. Anne senses something familiar about Lea, wondering if the two had met previously.
Ten years earlier, Lea was Anne8217;s husband, Nicholas.
This 2002 French film, featuring Nathalie Mann as Lea/Nicholas and Micky Sebastian as Anne, is one of eight transgender-themed films showing at this year8217;s Outfest, as the Los Angeles Gay 038; Lesbian Film Festival is known. Another Woman debuts Sunday and, along with the new US documentary Red Without Blue debuts Friday night, keenly captures the inherent contradiction of transsexual transition.
As a transsexual woman, I realise I watch trans-themed movies through a different filter. Minor details that clank off-key can ruin an entire production for me. In both of these films, there is dialogue that rings so laser-beam true to what I have experienced and what my friends have experienced, it made me squirm with discomfort.
At the heart of both films is the real struggle over language after a transsexual comes to terms with the truth and works up the courage to announce it. Those closest to the transsexual often exclaim, 8220;How can you do this to us?8221; The transsexual often will respond, 8220;How can you not understand that I have no choice? I was born with this.8221;
There is always someone collaterally affected by this profound life change, which is not readily understood, even by the person being prodded down the trans-journey path. What do you do when a force more powerful than anything you could have imagined grabs hold of you in midlife and shakes you and rattles your inner core and demands you step up to the trade table 8212; leaving you no option other than sacrificing your past and present in exchange for a future? Not necessarily a future of self-actualisation or inner peace, although transition often brings that.
In Another Woman, Nicholas/Lea abandons her family and her career because she no longer can abandon herself. But at what a cost! Lea initially overcharges herself, fearing she never will be able to explain her condition to Anne, to their children Emma and Lucas, to her mother, Rose. In her mind, the best thing she can do for her family is to stay away. So in solitude, she changes her body, changes her name, changes her residence, changes her profession.
However, Lea never can change her past. Reaching back to reconnect, however traumatic, becomes essential to Lea8217;s transition, because her family, friends and colleagues must psychologically and emotionally transition as well.
Red Without Blue examines the same notion by studying identical twins Mark and Alexander Farley, who were born minutes apart in 1983 in Missoula, Mont. It is a harsh and rugged landscape for Mark, who is homosexual, and Alex, who in her late teens begins her transition into Clair. When the initial revelation is made, the inner-circle reaction is just as harsh and rugged.
Both films show that time and communication remain great healers. And in both films, it is a child who turns the key to acceptance. 8220;He didn8217;t kill anyone,8221; Emma tells her younger brother, Lucas, still balking at his father8217;s revelation. 8220;He8217;s different, that8217;s all.8221;
In one scene of Red Without Blue, mother Jenny tells the interviewer, 8220;I don8217;t really think of Mark and Clair as my children. They are young people that I know.8221; Some time passes, and Jenny is interviewed again and she says, 8220;When all is said and done, it8217;s your child, regardless of gender8230;8221;
Daniels, a veteran sports writer, writes a blog at latimes .comdocumenting her transsexual transition.
8211;Christine Daniels LAT-WP
