Tag Archives: Trans

Southern Comfort (Dir: Kate Davis, 2001)

Filmmaker:
Year:
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Format: ,
Running Time: 90 min

Robert Eads and Lola Cola

English

Subject Headings: documentary, transsexual identity, health care, human rights

Southern Comfort is divided into the last four seasons of the life of Robert Eads, a cowboy from the Toccoa, Georgia backcountry.  Director Kate Davis spent one year living with Eads and filming his daily struggle with ovarian cancer.  More than a dozen doctors denied Eads treatment because he was a female-to-male transsexual.  Unable to receive treatment, the cancer ultimately claimed Eads’ life shortly after he spoke at the 1999 Southern Comfort conference in Atlanta, GA.  Southern Comfort, an annual conference for people affected by trans issues,

During the last year of his life, Eads pursued a close relationship with Lola Cola, a male-to-female transsexual. Davis documented their life together, as well as the tensions that resulted within Eads’ “family of choice.”  After bearing two sons, a period that he described as both the best and the worst in his life, Eads divorced his husband and lived as a lesbian before undergoing gender reassignment surgery to live as a woman.  At the time Davis was filming, Eads lived near several other transsexuals who came out publicly for the first time in the film.  Fiercely protective of one another, each member of the family sought to help Eads, who was a father figure and mentor to each.  Eads’ biological family, including his parents, son, and grandson, makes a brief appearance, but they still see him as a daughter and father and are unable to relate to the person he has become.  The loss of his biological family clearly pains Eads deeply, and he often mentions his grandson, to whom he has always been a man.

Davis highlights the frustration and anger felt by Eads and his friends over the medical establishment’s unwillingness to offer transsexuals parity. Those who underwent gender reassignment surgery shared stories about the expense and the doctors who did a poor job.  Footage of Southern Comfort reveals men and women discriminated against and threatened by a system ill equipped to address difference.  But as much as the film is about the difficulties faced by transsexuals in America, it also emphasizes the beauty and normalcy of transsexual relationships.  By showing both the unity and the divisions within Eads’ chosen family, Davis demonstrates that they are as human as her audience.  The film received numerous awards and critical acclaim, including a grand jury prize at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

Will Hopkins 2011

Further Reading:

Official web site: http://www.nextwavefilms.com/southern/

Southern Comfort web site: http://www.sccatl.org/

World Professional Association for Transgender Health: http://wpath.org/

Meyer, Carla. The transsexual life, Southern style / HBO documentary explores fascinating ‘chosen family’. SFGate.com. 2002. < http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-04-12/entertainment/17538451_1_transsexual-southern-comfort-ovarian>

Mitchell, Elvis. Genders That Shift, but Friends Firm as Bedrock. The New York Times. 2001. < http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B01E5DC1639F932A15751C0A9679C8B63>

Shinjuku Boys (dir. Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, 1995)

Year:
Country of Origin:
Running Time: 53 min

Producer: K. Longinotto, by Twentieth Century Vixen for the BBC
Color, 16mm

Kim Longinotto’s Shinjuku Boys is one of several documentaries she has made about versions of women’s sexuality in Japan. In this short film, she introduces her audience to the lives of three annabes, women who dress and live as men, though who do not identify as lesbians. Gaish, Tatsu, and Kazuki work at the New Marilyn Nightclub in the Shunjuku section of Tokyo. They are “hosts” at the nightclub; their job is to entertain the clientele, making them feel welcome and cared for. Their patrons are straight, young or middle-aged women. As Kazuki says with a comfortable smile, “Each customer thinks we’re her special boyfriend. They’re wrong”.

Most of the documentary simply follows the annabes around their lives—in fact, long shots are taken of the subjects just walking around Tokyo. Longinotto’s goal seems to be to give us a very intimate sense of each subject’s personality, both in how they deal with customers at the club and in their outside lives, and she is very succesful in this goal. We see Tatsu getting a haircut and chatting with his barber about his hormone injections, and also preparing dinner with his serious girlfriend. Gaish goes on a date that we follow, which ends in his (or possibly his date’s) bedroom. With Kazuki, we watch his costuming process and meet his girlfriend, who is a drag queen.

In some sections of the movie, there are framed interviews. These are more or less informal, filmed in a variety of locations, though none of them are in studios. The interviewer is off-screen, but we do hear the questions posed to the subjects in Japanese. Gaish and Kazuki both have joint interviews with their girlfriends in addition to their individual interviews. The men talk about a variety of issues, including sexual practices and difficulties, long-term relationship plans, the effects of hormone injections, and the reactions of their families to their annabe status.

One major failing of this film is its lack of cultural context. There is no larger discussion of gender relations or queer culture in Japan, and as a result most Western viewers are left with an incomplete understanding of what precisely differentiates these women from a lesbian or transvestite/transsexual culture in Tokyo. The meaning of the word “annabe” is left vague, and the lack of background information makes me feel actually uncomfortable watching the film: I’m afraid of seeing these men through the cultural stereotypes I may bring to the table.

Bibliography:

A good look at Longinotto’s career as a whole, and trends within these six films:
Morris, Gary. “Rebel Girls: Six Documentaries by Kim Longinotto”. Bright Lights Film Journal, (49), 2005 Aug, (no pagination) (Electronic publication.)

White, Patricia. “Cinema Solidarity: The Documentary Practice of Kim Longinotto”. Cinema Journal, (46:1), 2006 Fall, 120-28. 2006

The official word from Women Make Movies:
On Shinuku Boys
On Longinotto

IMDB listing