![]() The film was shot entirely on a couple of iPhones with camera adapters on location in L.A. Meanwhile her long-suffering friend has to prevent violence and kidnapping while trying to perform a show on Christmas Eve. She then sets out to extract revenge and answers. One of our leads finds out upon being released from jail that her pimp/boyfriend has cheated on her with a white female. (Yeah a studio would never greenlight this kind of film.) Tangerine is near plotless, but still has a light driving narrative in the manner of a Richard Linklater film. with two African-American transgender prostitutes as our main characters. I present to you Tangerine, a low-key dramedy set in the rougher parts of modern L.A. Leave it to clever independent filmmaking to push the edge. Until then Hollywood will continue to tiptoe around the issue, occasionally releasing decent and well-intentioned, but ultimately safe pieces such as The Danish Girl. Seeing this represented in mainstream cinemas is encouraging, making the content of the film as relevant to contemporary times as the way it has been made.The number of films centering on transgender people is quite few, but as the twenty-first century advances, I suspect the subject will enter a phase of normalcy. But, ultimately, Tangerine reminds us that the real violence comes from outside of this community in the perpetuation of society norms. It has its own problems with representation, particularly the reiteration of blackness and aggression in Sin Dee’s violent treatment of Dinah. It appropriates and subverts racism, misogyny, homophobia and trans phobia. Like Paris is Burning, this is a film that warrants a close up reading. Importantly, it also draws attention to the most vulnerable, those most at risk of violence, those most likely to be remembered. Tangerine offers a wildly different insight into transgender lives and could be dismissed as sensationalist if it were not filmed in a nonjudgmental way. The final showdown takes place in the Donut Hut, and the subsequent fall-out offers a surprisingly tender and compassionate insight into the multiple ways that people live on the margins, their isolation, and the importance of friendship and forgiveness. In the meantime, Alexandra walks the streets and picks up Raznik (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian cab driver who is married but frequently pays to perform oral sex on pre-operative trans women. Alexandra mistakenly guesses that she’s finished with him for sleeping around, which sets Sin Dee off on the trail of Dinah (Mickey O’Hagan) the “white fish” (slang for a white cisgendered woman) he has been cheating with. Set on Christmas Eve, Sin Dee is happy to be out of jail after a 28-day sentence and has a secret she wants to share with Alexandra about her pimp/boyfriend Chester (James Ransone). The script was co-crafted with the lead actors and draws on their own experiences and anecdotes of street work and survival around trade, transactions, drugs, pimps, friendship, betrayal, violence and care. ![]() It is filmed on a super low budget using a $8 phone app that delivers a close up, social realist edge to a story that crosses the boundaries of drama and documentary. Tangerine offers a chance to revisit these issues, and is receiving similar levels of attention. ![]() The legacy of the film can be measured in its influence at the time and it remains an important reference point in courses on LGBT history and queer studies today. Its popularity was far reaching and it drew significant attention from feminist and queer scholars offering different interpretations. Paris is Burning garnered widespread positive critical appraisal and won a Sundance Film Festival Jury prize.
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