SOUTHERN COMFORT
Kate Davis, USA, 2001
Tuesday 21 September 2004 10pm-11.20pm
Robert is a female-to-male transsexual suffering from ovarian cancer who faces sure death after 20 doctors have refused to treat him. But Robert makes a life for himself deep in rural Georgia.
DIRECTOR INTERVIEW
"Gender presents an unexamined realm of social oppression"
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Commissioner's
Comment Nick Fraser
Storyville Series Editor
Southern
Comfort has been a runaway success in America. It focuses on the life
of Robert Eads, who initially appears to be an eccentric redneck,
dressed in Stetson, cowboy boots and head-to-toe black, and living
in a house in the woods, with his girlfriend Lola.
However, Robert is dying of ovarian cancer, the consequence of an
only partially completed sex change operation. And Lola is waiting
to become a woman as the consequence of her own operation. Robert
and Lola's friends are all in various stages of gender alteration.
But that is only part of the charm of this extraordinary film.
You may wish to think of gender alteration as you watch, but after
about 10 minutes you'll be responding to the love story of Robert
and Lola. Robert's death at the end of the film is truly upsetting
- he is so charming, so unusual a person that you would prefer he
live forever.
