The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trans stories figure markedly at film fest
Documentary explores people behind transgender body building competition.
The movie “Man Made,” one of 218 narrative and documentary shorts, feature films and web series at the 31st Out on Film Festival, definitely qualifies as homemade.
Director T Cooper, an Emory University creative writing professor, chronicles multiple competitors at an Atlanta-based event: Trans FitCon, the world’s only all-transgender body building competition. And the film arrives at the festival with local accolades, having won Best Documentary at the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival.
For three decades, Out on Film has specialized in cinema by and about the LGBTQ communities, with this year’s lineup including such features as “The Happy Prince,” starring Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde, and “Ideal Home,” casting Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan as a bickering gay couple. In recent years, transgender and transexual issues have increasingly gained national attention, and this year’s festival reflects a new vitality in trans-themed cinema.
“We are lucky to have several films and documentaries in our line-up this year — “Man Made,” “TransMilitary,” “The Queens,” “TransGeek,” “Venus” and “Call Her Ganda,” as well as several
short films — with trans issues,” says program director Jim Farmer. “There have been years where we have had to look really hard. We have a lot more to choose from these days among our submissions. That is a good problem to have.”
“Man Made” director Cooper has written extensively on gender as both a novelist and memoirist, chronicling his female-tomale (FTM) transition. He learned about Trans FitCon, which accepts any participant who identifies as FTM, soon after moving to Atlanta with his family, and considered writing a magazine article about it.
“But then I felt like it needed to be more, it felt more dynamic and living and breathing,” Cooper says. “I wanted to do a traditional competition documentary like ‘Spellbound’ or ‘Murderball.’ I realized pretty quickly who I wanted to follow: there were so many different physical and emotional journeys.”
“Man Made,” which screens 7 p.m., Oct. 3, at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, tracks subjects who reflect different facets of the trans experience. During the year between competitions, Dominic undergoes a double mastectomy and meets his longlost birth mother; Mason “passes” as non-trans at a body building competition; Rese, an Atlanta native, discusses bouts of homelessness and having a son who calls him “mommy;” and Kennie embraces the early stages of identifying as a man, creating tension with his openly lesbian girlfriend.
“We don’t see a lot of trans male stories in mainstream culture, so for me to offer several versions gives you an idea of what that’s like. There’s not just one version of being a femaleto-male trans person,” says Cooper. “There isn’t just one version of masculinity.” “Man Made” takes more than a skin-deep look at pumping iron and the physical aspects of body building. “It’s a metaphor for what all trans people do. And what all people do, from the minute we’re born, we build our lives. To me, that’s a very rich metaphor for storytelling — they’re building a life.”
At a time when controversies arise over nontrans celebrities being cast in trans roles, Cooper is proud of having spent more than three years creating a “trans-made” film. “I just feel that more trans stories should be told by trans people, written by trans people, acted by trans people,” he says. “Let us tell at least as many as everyone else — it doesn’t have to be more and doesn’t have to be less.”
He believes his insidelooking-out perspective gives him the freedom and insight to make a film that’s both honest and hopeful. “I’m not saying that life is perfect all the time, but positivity is a powerful message. So often people from outside the community focus on tragedy to make people care. It’s not that those stories aren’t important, but those aren’t the only ones.”