Paul B. Preciado comes from the world of philosophy, not filmmaking. When he was approached by a studio about creating a biography of his life — from his work on identity and art to his own “slow transition” — it was merely as the subject of a potential film. Preciado instinctively knew his story wasn’t just the things that had happened to him or the work he’d done. His story is “Orlando,” by Virginia Woolf, both the ideas present in the 1928 novel and what the experience of reading it has done for young queer people. In “Orlando, My Political Biography” Preciado tells the story of the novel while reflecting on the lived experience of trans and genderfluid folks from the mid-20th century to the present day. But he doesn’t do that alone, either.
The film begins with Preciado searching for collaborators, putting up posters all over Paris that ask,...
The film begins with Preciado searching for collaborators, putting up posters all over Paris that ask,...
- 11/29/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Virginia Woolf‘s “Orlando: A Biography” is a centuries-spanning tale of a nobleman who, after a slumber that runs through several nights, metamorphoses into a woman. Inspired by and dedicated to Woolf’s lover, Vita Sackville-West, the classic 1928 novel has long been fodder for feminist and queer readings. The florid tale of a nobleman-cum-woman who fluidly plays with gender and sexuality, is as totemic a text as one can find to illustrate the timely and timeless journeys trans and gender-noncomforning folks have been making for decades (if not centuries). That is precisely what trans filmmaker Paul B. Preciado has done with his brilliant docu-manifesto, “Orlando, My Political Biography.”
Preciado understands how powerful a tale “Orlando: A Biography” remains close to a century since it was first published. With his hybrid documentary, Preciado seeks out to cannibalize Woolf’s text. With voiceover musings and staged narrative vignettes, he ingests Woolf’s text and regurgitates it.
Preciado understands how powerful a tale “Orlando: A Biography” remains close to a century since it was first published. With his hybrid documentary, Preciado seeks out to cannibalize Woolf’s text. With voiceover musings and staged narrative vignettes, he ingests Woolf’s text and regurgitates it.
- 11/17/2023
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
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