Trans Cinema: a History

On 25th February for Glasgow Film Festival we presented a talk about the history of trans cinema as a prelude to a screening of a film being released in the UK, A Fantastic Woman. We listed a bunch of films you could see as part of a trans (meant as a wide umbrella term here!) story.

With the caveat that this is trans film history from a white, Western perspective and that the list is selective and very far from exhaustive, here it is for anyone who’s interested along with links to watch the films online where available:

How Percy Won the Beauty Competition (1909) [silent with intertitles and onscreen text]

Morocco (1930)

I Was A Male War Bride (1949)

Glen or Glenda (1953) [English language with no captions or subtitles]

Psycho (1960)

Flaming Creatures (1963) [experimental film with minimal English language dialogue and no captions or subtitles]

Myra Breckinridge (1970) [English language with no captions or subtitles]

In a Year of 13 Moons (1978)

The World According to Garp (1982)

City of Lost Souls (1983) [experimental film with mostly German language with patchy English subtitles – some English language with auto-generated subtitles]

Law of Desire (1987)

Paris is Burning (1990)

The Crying Game (1992)

The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)

Ma vie en rose (1997)

Boy’s Don’t Cry (1999)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Transamerica (2005)

Tomboy (2011)

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Something Must Break (2014)

Black is Blue (2014)

The Danish Girl (2015)

Tangerine (2015)

Kaspar X – If I Had a Soul (2015)

Skeleton in a Beret (2016) [English language with auto-generated subtitles]

The Life and Death of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)

Strong Island (2017) [available on Netflix – English language with captions available]

Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2018)

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