By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Paul B. Preciado
Original language title: Orlando, ma biographie politique
Year: 2023
Running time: 98
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26448981/reference/
Chris says: “With this unconventional documentary, transgender writer/philosopher/feminist Paul B. Preciado doesn’t so much take Virginia Woolf’s Orlando back from the 1992 Sally Potter film starring Tilda Swinton in the title role as he comprehensively shows how her story about a figure living both male and female lives is one decidedly a century ahead of its time. Utilizing the sort of playfulness and defiance once favored by director Derek Jarman (for whom Swinton was a muse), Preciado interviews a score of trans and non-binary persons of all ages and races, each of them wearing the signature ruffled collar favored by Woolf’s character and introducing themselves by proclaiming, ‘I am (name) and I will be playing the part of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando.’
“For a first-time director, it’s arguably uneven: Preciado doesn’t hesitate to confound expectations or startle an audience into submission with a soundtrack swerving between thumping diva house and annihilating thrash metal or phantasmagorical scenarios straight from a particularly wacky Kate Bush music video. No matter how zany or slapdash he comes across, there’s a sincerity and root-for-the-underdog momentum. His disparate voices coalesce into a Greek chorus where the power of and goodwill executed by individual stories gains focus rather than fixating on the dryness of gender theory or intellectual polemics. Orlando becomes a prescient text that’s not necessarily a bible but more of a jumping-off point. What also seemed like sensory overload on first view has had staying power: with time to fully digest all of its thoughts and quirks, this is easily the most innovative and entertaining documentary I saw at the festival. 4 cats
“Screened at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2023; to be distributed in North America by Janus Films (release date TBD).”