Disclosure review
When is the last time you talked to, or about those who do not identify with the sex they were born in? The Netflix documentary Disclosure, released a year ago, discusses how transgender people are portrayed by the media. The film is directed by Sam Feder, who is known for his political LGBTQ+ movies and for being part of the Queer Producers Network. Sam’s gender identity is a transgender male which helps him tell stores in a genuine light, some of his films include Boy I Am, Kate Bornstein Is A Queen, and Pleasant Danger. One of the executive producers is Laverne Cox, who is also a big contributor to the interview part of the documentary and is well known for being an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights.
The other interviewees include an array of transgender people who work in the television and film industry. These include Susan Stryker, Alexandra Billings, Jamie Clayton, Chaz Bono, and Alexandra Grey. They show us their point of views while going through the history of transgender people on the big screen. This highlights the misrepresentation in mainstream media, and what has impacted them as individuals. Most television and movies that feature transgender people often portray them as that of a lower class of society (drug addicts, prostitutes, criminals), and as a group that does not contribute positively to society. This has directly correlated with the rising amount of violence towards transgender people in our culture.
A source of oppression in the transgender community is non-transgender individuals who only have experience viewing the transgender community through the medias lenses. Media is mainly the source of the oppression in this movie. The media stigmatizes an already marginalized group, and most of these roles are written, played by, and made for heterosexual people. This unfortunately causes the transgender community to not have control over how they are presented. Art and the creative realm has been used as a form of protest and expression since as long as humanity has been around. It is a non-violent way of expression that the LGBTQ+ community has utilized, by telling the world they are here to stay. Due to the media and it's influence, up until very recently there has been little to no talk about transgender people and their experiences. This is mostly because there is yet to be equality in sexual orientation in our culture. Looking through the lens of film specifically, only in the last two years have we seen transgender people being presented in a positive light on the screen. Now that our culture has begun to embrace sexual diversity, individuals are gaining equal rights, and those who do not fall in the heterosexual category are slowly being destigmatized.
Based on the audience's personal beliefs and ideals, I think it will open a lot of peoples eyes to their own unknown biases. In an open minded environment, it could create and inspire healthy conversations that could lead to personal growth and empathy for marginalized groups. I personally did not know a lot about the transgender community before watching this movie. I enjoyed learning from the interviews first hand about the history of transgender people and how many obstacles they have had to overcome. I think this film truly shows the adversity that the interviewees have experienced, as a viewer it felt powerful and will help so many people find their identities and not feel shame for who they are. It is inspiring that many of the individuals being interviewed still find joy and happiness in their lives even though they might not be accepted in all spaces. Previous to watching this movie I had a narrow view of what being transgender really meant, I only knew it through what the media portrayed. I usually am not a big documentary movie watcher, but Disclosure kept my interest with the detailed stories told by all of those being interviewed.
You have arrived at the end of my review. For my language arts final in School, I was required to review an art form that expresses voice and protest. So I chose to write about the documentary disclosure. What you just read was a down version of my review for school, I hope you enjoyed hearing my thoughts on this topic. I hope you get an opportunity to watch Disclosure, Happy Pride Month!