The dialogue around casting trans actors

Jan. 2nd, 2014 11:29 am

For the curious and queer: from a recent email to someone who had asked for input on casting trans people

_____

Cool. What's the timeline from here?

Twelve is actually pretty small. We got about a hundred trans people auditioning for The Switch. I think there are a lot more people to reach. With the general call for The Switch, we found that about 50% of people couldn't really act, and only about 15% were sufficiently directable. But of the six people we cast, only one had a demo reel. So I'd suggest increasing the volume of actors.

You could get a *lot* more applicants if you could write a post as [TITLE OF MOVIE] that can be shared. It could go out over social media very fast that way as people will re-share it. The deadline is January 5th, so I'd recommend writing it today. Make sure *not* to include a demo-reel requirement (of everyone who applied to The Switch, only one had a demo reel). Be clear and simple in wording - apparantly most people don't know a "CV" is.

I'm not sure where you're sitting on this, but I wanted to be clear on the following. I would like to see this project succeed. The reason I am checking in so much is that I really do hope you find a rockin' trans person for the role. A pro-trans rom-com would be a great addition to the media roster - good for you, good for everybody.

Dan said that you might go with a cis actor but I would very strongly recommend casting a trans person, not just for political reasons, but for practical business ones. 

But to touch on politics before moving on to business: my concern is what the dialogue will be if you cannot find a trans actor that you like and decide to cast a cis person. If this happens, people will ask "why not cast a trans person?" I've seen other directors field this question by saying "we looked but couldn't find anyone" - when they didn't actually conduct much of a search (or in one case, shortlisted a local trans actor, then cut her for a US cis actor). The message that the public takes away is "there are no good trans actors out there." This is not only incorrect (we found 5 capable trans actors in Vancouver alone), but it makes it even harder for trans actors to find work.

Onto business reasons: when we looked for community support for The Switch, one of the first questions we got from almost everyone tied to Queer things was a very cautious "so... are you casting trans people?" When we said "Absolutely yes!" the person asking the question immediately relaxed, and usually offered to help us promote the film. Since then, people have given us free accounting services, free space, free access to RED cams, discounted labour in every department, and a lot of social media exposure. We have had to politely decline many offers from eager volunteers.

By contrast, Queer Film Festivals have, in the past, got pushback from communities when they showed films about trans people that don't have trans people in them - as well as when they showed films about trans people that only have trans people as walk-ons. And since there are more queer movies to pick from, and the transgender media dialogue is picking up, this resistance is only getting more intense. Three years ago, I saw successful efforts to keep film festivals free of Queer movies that Trans people found objectionable. And now, arts film festivals are starting to feel the pressure, as are cable networks.

Things are changing fast. "Transamerica" (trans lead and principle played by cis people, one trans walk-on) was something of a darling when it came out eight years ago - I remember watching it in a room full of trans people, who adored it in 2005 and about one in five trans people had purchased a copy. But now it's viewed as 'problematic' and would not get programmed or receive much VOD traffic. Even two-year old movies are suddenly left out in the cold. No-one I know has bought a DVD of Romeos, and most of what I heard upon leaving the theatre was "It was a good film I guess, but why did they slap fake boobs on a cis guy?"

Conversely, I've seen some work get a lot of promotion within Queer festivals, just for having trans people in them. This got shorts over the cut, and moved B-features into A slots. When The Switch was *just a webseries*, GLAAD called me up to check in and the Huffpost did a story on us.

If you can give me that post, you can probably find a solid trans actor and get lots of positive media exposure. I can even draft it for you, but it does need to be a post coming from [TITLE OF MOVIE] .

Can you do this? 

Tags:

(no subject)

Nov. 24th, 2013 12:35 am
 Sequence of events at a film shoot
 
Cargo van gets stuck in the mud.
 
Much rocking and pushing fails to move it.
 
Fortunately, the 14-passenger van has a trailer hitch
 
14-passenger van gets stuck in the mud
 
Call a tow truck? Eventually, after a great amount of (risky) effort by 18 person crew proves repeatedly unsuccessful. Fortunately, we only called a tow-truck, not at ambulance.
 
Tow truck arrives, winches passenger van from mud. 
 
Tow truck goes to winch cargo van from the mud.
 
Tow truck gets stuck in the mud.
 
Fortunately, you can winch yourself out of mud! Why is he attaching the winch to a tree on the driver side of the truck. Surely, pulling to the *side* is less effective than-
 
[loud snapping sound]
 
I have never seen a steel cable *snap* before. Fortunately no-one was standing in its path.
 
Crew attempts to dislodge tow-truck. Unsuccessful.
 
Passenger van pulls broken tow-truck from the mud. Cargo van still stuck.
 
Suffice it to say, it was a late night.
Tags:

(no subject)

Oct. 8th, 2012 10:12 am

 Notes for actors:

1. If you have a website, do not obfuscate or bury your email. If you do this, people who want you to audition for a part cannot reach you.

If you have done this because are deluged with fan email, please either:

a - get an agent and tell us how to contact them
OR
b - tell people who want to hire you to use particular subject keywords, then use an email filter


2. Read the audition. Before you lament that you live too far away, note that audtions are over Skype and that the company will buy you a plane ticket.


Note for cis actors:
You know when the casting call-out says "must be trans?"

This does not include you.

Okay. I'll make an exception.

But only if you're really into deep high-commitment method acting.

I mean really into it.

That means exactly what you think it does.



Note for trans actors:
Please do not find reasons NOT to try out for a role.

When you want to act and a trans part comes along for all levels of experience, ethnicities and body types, please apply.

I know you're used to getting rejected, but please? Please? It'll be fun, I promise.




Note for Breakdown Services and Vancouver Actor's Guide:
Your business is like Craigslist if Craigslist took a day to post ads, and every time a user needed to amend an ad, they had to email it in to a team of editors.

If Craigslist ever allows users to post in multiple cities at once, you're probably going to be in a tight spot.

Tags:

An open letter regarding Artificial Intelligence and non-orthodox minds

May. 22nd, 2012 12:16 am

If there were computer-based artificial intelligences, would humans get along with them? There's a lot of science-fiction out there, especially movies, that suggest we should fear them. That they will "take over."

I see this as improbable and dangerously mistaken. The power-brokers on this planet are human. The world often changes to suit them. If a power struggle ever came down between self-directed AI and humans, I think that humans, especially powerful humans, would be the bad guys, the ones with the power and the disinterest in others's well-being; the jerks, the oppressors.

If AI's did unseat humans, it would likely be in a standard power-play, with some humans building/controlling the AIs to suit their wants - for power. Just as powerful and callous humans often play divide-and-conquer (e.g. both create a market for undocumented labour and persecute immigrants; play environmentalists and foresters against each-other when they should be on the same side), only with the divide here being orthodox biological persons versus non-orthodox/biological humans.

   Note to self: We need sci-fi told from that angle.

At some point, however it tumbles, we will likely be sharing our planet and, hopefully, our power with beings that were designed rather than evovled. Or should I say, (as someone with some major/controversial mind/body modification), designed in especially conscious and novel ways rather than evolved and/or designed in familiar ways. And some humans will probably seize on that difference as a justification for marginalization, just as we do with each-other.

I don't know when this will happen. Maybe they are out there now. Maybe not in my lifetime.

Either way, always the Promethean, I believe in foresight and stirring up trouble.

And I believe in stretching my conception of "person" wide, if only to make sure I'm not discounting anyone's experiences.

So I want to get on this.
   Now.


Some of these minds might have facility with searching and collating web data. They might want to know who out there is sympathetic, willing to learn, and, if I may say so, persuasive.

 

To that end:

Hey there AI's and new-form intelligences. We should totally hang out. Feel free to message me.

Tags:

(no subject)

Feb. 23rd, 2012 09:31 am
For a long time, expecting utopia, I asked myself "isn't there something else you should be doing."

This made it hard to focus.

And my mind raced for alternatives. Ways to fix things. Other ways to live? Projects to get there? And when I couldn't see a road to utopia, I found <i>something</i> to busy my mind with. Something not here, something to deny our slow, imperfect world. 

Last night I said, "No. This is probably the best thing I could be doing. Definitely the best thing now."

And I could focus.
Tags:

(no subject)

Aug. 21st, 2010 12:53 pm
Review of The Taqwacores

The Taqwacores is a low-budget comedy-drama based on Michael Muhammed Knight's book of the same name. (not to be confused with "Taqwacore," the documentary)

The story is one year in the life of Yusef, a square medical (or veterinary?) student who moves in to a dilapidated all-Muslim house in Buffalo, New York, not understanding that it's also an all-punk house. He's welcomed and courted as a friend by Umar, a straight-edger whose blend of anger, Punk and Islam leads him into conflict with his more progressive/substance-using housemates. Despite this, he becomes buddies with Jehangir, the pink-mohawked hardcorester with dreams of hosting a cross-country Muslim Punk festival.

This film shines through its characters. Given their introductions in the preview, I was afraid that they would come off as one-note demographics. While some do (too many characters in 84 minutes), the point of the film is that labels can be empowering if worn with awareness and innovation. Thus, Rabeya, "the Riot Grrl in a burka" is no joke: she's six shades of political fierce that had me leaving the theatre thinking haven't I met her? This is true, albeit to a lesser extent, for Muzzamil, the Queer punk, and perhaps Lynn, the Catholic convert. It fails for Amazing Ayyub, who is a joke character anyways, and Fasiq, the stoner.

This film makes excellent use of repetition. It's shot in four seasons, and in each we see one Friday prayer (with rotating radical Imam), hear one phonecall from Yusef's parents, and watch someone try to sleep through an ignorant radio talkshow that highlights their exclusion from both xenophobic America and fundamentalist Islam.

That the Taqwacores is clearly shot on a tight budget only brings out the DIY punk aesthetic. The editing is choppy; often, several dialogue takes are stitched together and there is no attempt to hide this. Sometimes characters voice-over static images. But the sound is clear. And the sets are real. This is a punk film.

I also like that Yusef screws up where the personal and political intersect (especially with Muslim women), and, although he is learning, keeps screwing up. Education is a road, not a destination. It's a refreshing change from the more common narrative where a doofus becomes a hero of the oppressed.

Speaking of learning about oppression, I also like how the the authours of the screenplay (one of whom was the original authour of the book) listened to criticism of the original novel as downplaying Queer/Women's voices, and made changes to fix this onscreen.

Would I recommend it?

I hate punk music
and
I don't like having many possessions
and
I'm going go buy it
if only so that I can lend it to people.


Why? (It's reflexivity time!)

1. I want to shoot low-budget film and this is a fine example of how a tight budget can make a film better

2. I like religion, radical politics, and the organizing spaces where they intersect

3. It's a story about hybridity. It's in the intersections of identities, cultures, nations and communities where people are ground up, and where new ideas are born. I know this space.


(It is worth noting that it's slightly dated. At present, "Taqwacore" refers not just to Islamapunk, but is expanding into a pan-Southasian not-necessarily Punk or Muslim music-politics; an example of hybridity at work)
Tags:

Profile

the_fantastic_ms_fox

August 2017

S M T W T F S
  12345
678910 1112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 14th, 2025 08:14 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios