Still Black
I wanted to highlight that a new documentary is now out and available on DVD, Still Black. Below is a clip from the documentary, which I would love to see.
About the film:
STILL BLACK: a portrait of black transmen, is an alternative feature-length documentary that explores the lives of six black transgender men living in the United States. Through the intimate stories of their lives as artists, students, husbands, fathers, lawyers, and teachers, the film offers viewers a complex and multi-faceted image of race, sexuality and trans identity.
Check out the website to purchase the documentary, or see here for festival viewing.
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It's great to see an intersectional perspective on this. Thanks for sharing!
The FtM group I go to was able to show this film earlier this year. I thought it was good film; well made and well presented. I thought it was pretty basic trans 101 narratives, which I don't mean as a criticism, just that, from the perspective of a very trans-aware audience, there wasn't much new information or discussion.
I was also somewhat disappointed, because I thought from the description that there would more discussion about the intersections of race, gender and their privileges, etc, and there really wasn't. Again, not really a criticism - the movie does what it does well - just wanted to mention that for anyone else looking into buying/showing the film.
I saw this at Frameline in San Francisco this year, and I liked it a lot. It sidestepped a bunch of the horrible mistakes that trans documentaries often make- I think there was only one glaring instance of a guy saying something misogynistic, and there were absolutely NO "before shots"- and the subjects made a lot of really good points. Recommended!
I've seen this film, and I really liked it. I disagree with Rob that there was no intersectionality in it. More than one of the interviewees discussed learning not just how to be male, but how to specifically be a black male. For instance, there is a disabled guy who talks about learning that, as a black male, he is seen as threatening even from his wheelchair.
The moderator was a black cis guy. He spoke a little bit about how he never thinks about being male, he just is male, and how that is different from the perspectives we heard in the film.
There were a handful of black trans guys there, and many of them said how thrilled they were that there was a film about them. Many of them thought they were the only black trans guys out there while they were transitioning.
There was on interviewee who I thought was really great and did offer new perspectives that are not basic trans 101. One insight was that when a person transitions, their family and friends are forced to transition along with them, ready or not. That is, family and friends don't get to pick the pace at which they adapt to their family member's/friend's identity - they have to go at the pace of their trans family/friend. I have heard people talk about how their family responds to them as a trans person and their families' response made them feel. This was the first acknowledgment in any trans discussion I have heard that family/friends transition as well.