Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Watch us on Youtube Join the Archive Mailing List Read our Blog

No Ordinary Man / Chavela

Jazz musician Billy Tipton and two bandmates.
August 19, 2023 - 7:30 pm
In-person: 
Q&A between features with co-director Chase Joynt, writer Amos Mac, curators Caden Mark Gardner and Jenni Olson.


Admission is free. No advance reservations. Your seat will be assigned to you when you pick up your ticket at the box office. Seats are assigned on a first come, first served basis. The box office opens one hour before the event.


No Ordinary Man

U.S., 2020

Trans jazz musician Billy Tipton lived in stealth for much of his life. After his 1989 death from health complications, his trans identity was revealed and a tabloid media circus against him and his family followed. Filmmakers Chase Joynt, Aisling Chin-Yee and Amos Mac return to Tipton’s story, enlisting transmasculine performers as well as trans historians to rehabilitate and reconsider Tipton’s life story and critique how the mainstream media often misunderstands trans masculinity.

DCP, color, 83 min. Director: Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt.

Watch a trailer:


Estimated start time: 9:30 p.m.

Chavela

U.S., 2017

A tremendous portrait of legendary Mexican lesbian singer Chavela Vargas. The world-famous performer was a gun-toting, tequila-loving, macho butch rumored to have had dalliances with Frida Kahlo and Ava Gardner. From being the toast of Mexico City in the 1960s and ’70s to falling into obscurity in the 1980s, the film follows her return to the world stage as muse to Pedro Almodóvar — culminating in her Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammys in 2007. Friends, colleagues and ex-lovers discuss her legacy and the film is packed with amazing archival material. A joy to watch from first frame to last.

DCP, color, 93 min. Director: Catherine Gund, Daresha Kyi.

Special thanks to our community partner: UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Watch a trailer: