USA,
2000, 90 min
Shown in 2001
CREDITS
- dir
-
Kate Davis
- prod
-
Kate Davis, Elizabeth Adams
- cam
-
Kate Davis
- editor
-
Kate Davis
- mus
-
Joel Harrison
- source
-
Q-Ball Productions, 412 West End Ave #3E, New York, NY 10024. FAX: 212-580-0288
-
COMMENTS
Screened with The Ride. Kate Davis, Elizabeth Adams in person.
OTHER
Meet Robert Eads, a chain-smokin’, gun-totin’, good ol’ boy. Robert’s also a female-to-male transsexual, living in rural Georgia with his adopted transgendered sons and their lovers. Lanky and lean at 52, he cuts a charming figure of genial Southern courtesy, laconic good humor and uncommon self-knowledge. Robert’s never flinched from the truth—not since that day he realized he was a boy in a girl’s body—nor asked for sympathy, even as he forged a new life in the face of his family’s dismay. An extraordinary man trying to live an ordinary life, Robert is thrown yet another curve when he’s diagnosed with ovarian cancer. (Since he was past menopause, the doctors mistakenly concluded that a hysterectomy wasn’t necessary.) Even the indignity of being denied treatment by several physicians doesn’t curdle Robert’s view of the world. His transgendered lover, Lola Cola, takes him in and nurses him with the goal of making one last appearance at the annual Southern Comfort convention—“the cotillion of the trans community,” as Robert dryly puts it. The film is a lovely tribute to people seeking safe spaces and community, or creating their own where none exists. This intimate profile in courage, dignity and love won the documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
—Michael Fox
FACTOID #45
Peter Jennings, Peter Ustinov, Bill Cosby and Gene Kelly have all served as master of ceremonies on Opening Night of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
