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The groundbreaking documentary Disclosure from director Sam Feder examines transgender depictions in film and television through the lens of trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox (also an executive producer), Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton and Chaz Bono, to name a few. By allowing the personal recollections of his interviewees to mold the recounting of 100-plus years of trans cinematic history, Feder invites viewers to bear witness to a necessary act of reclamation and refutation of trans erasure.
This program selects seven out of the hundreds of films the documentary cites and screens them in their entirety. This series also includes six short films with trans characters at the center of the stories ranging from the 1800s (Tourmaline’s Mary of Ill Fame) through present day (Hao Zhou’s Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way). One cannot erase nor ignore the history of misrepresentation of trans people throughout film history, but it is possible to look back and re-read these images with intention. This program is an invitation to engage with that possibility. This series also happily coincides with a momentous announcement by Feder and producer Amy Scholder that their research, recorded interviews, and related materials gathered to produce the documentary have been donated to the UCLA Film & Television Archive and UCLA Library Special Collections to ensure their pivotal work will be preserved for future generations.—Beandrea July
