Fiorry Social Media Posts About Film
Social Media Posts For Fiorry: An app for trans people and their allies
The Brief: the client asked me to inspire their viewers to comment on the posts about films dealing with trans-related issues. Making the post long was encouraged, and the tone could be a criss-cross between informal, casual and analytical with an academic edge.
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POST: Breakfast on Pluto
It’s movie night, and we want to talk about Breakfast on Pluto. Have you seen it? With an all-star cast directed by Neil Jordan (The Crying Game), we follow the journey of a young trans woman abandoned by her parents, as she searches for her long-lost mother in Ireland and England in the 1970s.
We get insight into a time of extreme prejudice and conflict, where being trans is especially dangerous (not too different from today). The director depicts a world sick with antiquated ideas in need of a profound change.
It’s interesting to point out that the main character’s father is a priest. That’s quite the contrast! On the one hand, we have someone who embodies all that’s considered holy and respectable by society. Then we have Kitten, an outcast, the exact opposite of her father. But the priest himself undergoes a change. Do you think he redeems himself at the end?
Kitten’s quest to find her mother is quite touching. Why do you think it’s so important for her? Is there anything symbolic about that?
The film got mixed reviews. Some found Kitten to be a little carefree. She didn’t take anything serious enough, and yet that also somehow saved her life. She’s always saying, “Oh serious, serious, serious.” Remember that this is taking place in the backdrop of the conflict with the IRA—who in one scene spares Kitten’s life.
We’re big fans of Cillian Murphy and we think he did a great job portraying Kitten, but some people weren’t convinced, not by Murphy’s acting, but by the actual character.
Then there’s a bigger problem: Cillian is a cis man playing the role of a trans woman. While we admire his acting, for a film like this it’s important to have more trans actors involved. Was there no trans actor that could’ve played Kitten’s role? Of course, there were. Which trans actors do you think could’ve portrayed Kitten as well as Cillian did?
POST: Lingua Franca
“Lingua Franca” is one of our favorite films, and it is key to the struggle for gaining wider acceptance and respect of the trans community. Kudos to Isabel Sandoval, a trans woman from the Philippines, who not only stars in this wonderful movie, but she also happened to write, direct, and produce it. How’s that for lots of talent?
The movie puts a story about a trans person into the limelight. “Lingua Franca” is about someone like Isabel, a Filipino trans woman, who, like Isabel, endures the life of an immigrant in New York City during Trump’s presidency, when racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and transphobia are on the rise.
The story portrays two cross-cultural relationships between a trans woman and a cis man. As we watch it, and we explore themes of love, immigration, culture, and of course, gender, there’s this feeling that everything we see is real and human, that we’re getting a glimpse of how the world is, and what it can be. We confront the obstacles of building a gender and ethnically-diverse community and are invited to overcome them.
Isabel Sandoval’s acting and filmmaking, along with her real-life story, are invaluable contributions to society. Her work demonstrates great artistic talent, and it gives trans and non-binary relations with cis people more visibility in the mainstream media, paving the way for a wider spectrum of gender to be embraced.
