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BBC Four:
How did you come to the material in the first place?
Kate
Davis: I have always felt that most everyone suffers, consciously
or not, from the strict societal rules which prescribe behaviour
according to the great gender divide. With this as a basic viewpoint,
I produced a film on the transgender movement for A&E Television
Networks, which was an overtly political piece. During the filming,
I attended an FTM [female-to-male] conference in Maryland, and met
Robert. His story amazed me, as did his charm and insight. I thought
he would defy the stereotype many people have regarding TG folks.
BBC Four: Did Robert need much persuasion to have the film made?
KD: Robert was ambivalent at first about having his life
exposed on film. He had chosen to live a closeted existence in a
rural conservative community, after all. I would never pressure
anyone to be in a documentary, and so I left him alone. However,
he decided that the film might help save someone's life, or open
people's hearts and minds. He hoped the film could make something
good out of something bad.
BBC Four: The other characters express quite a few insecurities. Was
it hard to get them to open up to you as an outsider?
KD: We really got along as friends. I don't think it was
hard for them to open up. There was such an intimate and trusting
environment during the filming, and also, in general they had been
through so much self-examination that they tended to be better than
many people at articulating their feelings.
BBC Four: Were you expecting to be welcomed so warmly into that community?
KD: I had already made my first film on trans people, and
so I was not a total outsider. The people in Southern Comfort had
a sense that my motives were OK and that their lives would not be
sensationalised. In the end, I think part of what is so surprising
about the movie is that the film subjects are so "regular"
and like other mainstream people.
BBC Four: Was one of your aims to show how transgender people weren't
just some kind of Jerry Springer freakshow?
KD: I was amazed at how trans people were rarely shown as
more than theatrical oddities, at best. I wanted to take the opposite
approach, and place the viewer squarely in lives of these people.
BBC Four: Lola has done some publicity for the film. Was she pleased
with how it turned out?
KD: Lola is very proud of the film, I think. She has gone
around the world presenting it to all kinds of audiences, and has
seen firsthand how it can affect people. She has remarked that the
film treats trans people as people first, like everyone else, and
that the gender aspect is just one part of them, like being left-handed.
BBC Four: What's she up to now?
KD: Lola is doing very well, and is living with a new partner.
BBC Four: Do you think there's an added resonance that Robert lived
in the South?
KD: Absolutely. There is such a distinct flavour to life
in the South. A lot of details, like the meat, the hay bales, the
truck, just help bring the film subjects alive. But I also think
that the location helps an audience understand that transgendered
people are not relegated to cities like San Francisco. They live
everywhere. And why shouldn't they?
BBC Four: It's a subject that is getting more mainstream attention too,
in films like Boys Don't Cry and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Why
do you think this is?
KD: I think people have examined race, sexual orientation,
and other group differences, but gender presents an unexamined realm
of social oppression. That is why just recently gender had been
the centre of a new civil rights movement in the US.
BBC Four: The spirit of the Southern Comfort conference seems to be
that transgender people are the last taboo. Is that something you
agree with?
KD: The last taboo, or at least the broadest. There are other
sad ways in which minorities are oppressed, but gender really affects
us all, every day. Just try holding your hands differently or wearing
a purse if you're a man or growing a moustache is you are female.
Then you'll see the rules come down hard and fast
BBC Four: Have you had much feedback from the transgender community
as a whole?
KD: The TG community seemed to very much accept the film,
and it has shown at many TG conventions.
BBC Four: There's a wonderful scene at breakfast where Robert says "we
should be filming this" and of course you are. How did you manage
to be so unobtrusive?
KD: The camera all but disappeared, it seems, and that surprises
me too. But I was never a total "fly-on-the-wall" and sort of integrated
filming with hanging out socially. They got used to seeing me with
this small camera on my shoulder, and pretty much forgot it was
there. Max has said that he was always speaking to me, not the camera.
BBC Four: Did it become very difficult to film as Robert's health got
worse?
KD: At the end, it was extremely hard to keep my role up
as filmmaker while caring so much about Robert as a friend. Losing
him was actually the hardest part of making the film, and I waited
many months until I had enough emotional distance to be able to
deal with the footage. I had trouble turning his story into a "product"
until I reminded myself that it is what Robert would have wanted.
BBC Four: Did the film's seasonal structure seem an immediately obvious
device, or did it develop as an idea while you were filming?
KD: I was quite aware of the seasons passing by Fall. I did
not decide to use title cards until the edit room, however, but
the somewhat allegorical nature of the four seasons was quite clear.
BBC Four: Any film about someone dying is bound to be emotional. How
wary were you of becoming too sentimental?
KD: I was concerned that the film could become maudlin. In
the edit room, I certainly cut out parts which seemed to me to be
over emotional, and I tried to include the wry humour which was
such a part of these people. I'd have to credit Robert more than
anyone else, however. He just had an ability to speak about huge
life issues without being self-pitying or aggrandising.
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