July 13, 2009
Outfest LA :: Still Black - A Portrait of Black Transmen
Kevin Langson READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Transgender identity is still a new enough area of inquiry in film that there are facets yet to be explored. Kortney Ryan Ziegler's documentary Still Black: A Portrait of Black Transmen aims squarely at coloring this consideration.
Specifically, his film addresses what it means to be Black and trans by collecting testimonies from such men, mostly from the Midwest. Constructing a film entirely of talking heads is risky business, but this documentary largely succeeds at sustaining a sufficient amount of interest with minimal visual variation because the subjects are varied and dynamic.
Ziegler was smart to keep this project on the extreme short end of feature length; as it stands there are certain segments from each interview that could use some trimming, moments when banality begins to seep into what is essentially compelling material.
For example, Ethan, an amiable man who suffers from cerebral palsy, is effortlessly engaging when reflecting on the psychological adjustments necessary when switching genders. As a woman, he had been conditioned to defer, to never quite meet the gaze of his company.
Becoming male made him aware of the deeply embedded prejudices that Black men have to encounter on a daily basis, as well as his own internalized racism (this point is worth further elaboration). It is also interesting to hear him explain that he identified as a lesbian just so that he could be part of the queer community before he transitioned, that he was always attracted to men but not straight men and could never imagine himself in a heterosexual relationship.
It is only his discussion of his tattoos and piercings that seems tangential and inconsequential. It can be argued that these sorts of details contribute something to character development, but this comes at the end of his testimony and is similar to the snippets of ordinary life in other testimonies that slightly detracts from the impact of the discussion at hand.
From a visual standpoint, the stark mise en scene's and black and white cinematography seem appropriate, while occasions of off-kilter framing and split screen/multiple angle of the same interview are simultaneously welcome as a change and confusing because they seem to serve no other end.
However, the important thing here is the slices of trailblazing life provided- the opportunity to hear from Black trans men, to affirm that they are lawyers, preachers, hip hop artists, and to hear their problems in their uniqueness and commonness.
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Now showing at OutFest LA
