| The film (now streaming on Netflix), which was directed by Sam Feder and cast entirely by trans folks, captures the history of how cisgender filmmakers have portrayed us on screen — from early 20th century silent pictures to today — and how these portrayals have influenced the way we understand ourselves. Discover what to watch this November, including a documentary series that dives deep into the Marvel Universe, a reboot of a beloved '90s animated series, and a special that celebrates a very important Star Wars holiday. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. Documentary. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here. Disclosure presents this history with unique concern, with a world-affirming attention to how holding it is vital to our liberation. So the white [character] becomes this high society dandy, like the ideal of what a man should be. I'm an ally and have been so disgusted by the treatment of trans people. © 2020 Condé Nast. Susan Stryker. | Gold Derby And yet, here I am. Watching Disclosure as a trans person feels a lot more like therapy than entertainment. Alexandra Billings. For an enhanced browsing experience, get the IMDb app on your smartphone or tablet. But through this brutal education, offered exclusively through the voices of our kin, we are afforded something essential: context. Seeing these depictions can be depressing and enraging, as they demonstrate how society has been conditioned to find us disgusting, dangerous, and disposable. | But these are shortcomings the filmmakers acknowledge, captured in one central moment: “There is a one-word solution to almost all the problems in trans media,” says the actress and writer Jen Richards, “More.”. So, we’re looking to the media to figure out, ‘Who’s like us?’”. So when we’re trying to figure out who we are, we look to the media to figure it out, because just like the 80% of Americans who say they don’t know a trans person, that’s often true of trans people as well. Your head is trying desperately to stay in the scene. | (uncredited), Dance School Administrator Do you know what it's like to go on a set and be afraid? In discussing Silence of the Lambs, Jen Richards presents the other — horror: “I was about to go through transition, and I worked up the courage to tell one of my colleagues. I said, What’s happening? And she’s a very, very smart woman, very, very talented musician, very well-educated, very worldly, and she looked at me and goes, ‘You mean like Buffalo Bill?’ Her only point of reference was this disgusting, psychotic serial killer who hunts women in order to kill them and skin them, in order to wear their bodies — to literally appropriate the female form, which is exactly the feminist argument against the existence of trans women.”.