The Garden Left Behind- Avery Hansen
The “Garden Left Behind” is a film that was presented at the Reelout Film Festival located in Kingston, Ontario. The “Garden Left Behind” highlights a 30 year old transgender woman living in New York City struggling with the ongoing issues revolving the violence around transgender women. The main character Tina had illegally immigrated from Mexico to the United States at the age of six with her grandmother. This film documents the hardships Tina faces to provide for both her grandmother and herself amongst trying to fully transition. Tina is usually shown as trying to get a job, trying to balance a relationship, and spends a lot of time with her friends. Tina’s friends whom are also members of the transgender community later on develop a support group against the violence transgender women face. Chris, another main character seems to take interest in Tina and develops an abnormal obsession with her which leads to violence. Tina faces the struggles of being an undocumented immigrant, the status in her transition, and the violence she is exposed to on a daily basis. These issues underlie intersectionality due to that all the factors that are presented in Tina’s life all overlap and lead to some sort of discrimination.
One point of focus in this film is that Tina is an undocumented Mexican immigrant, this just one of the many factors that impact Tina’s life. By not having documented status in the United States, Tina finds herself struggling to find a job that will allow her to work without a green card. Tina even goes to the extreme of obtaining a fake green card to work as a bartender to provide for her grandmother and to also afford to start taking hormones. Without having documented status in the United States this creates further oppression and limits Tina’s abilities for access to healthcare, jobs, and education. By Tina being a transgender women as well as being a women of color creates an abundance of social issues such as; racism in the street, the use of transgender slurs, and transphobia. Tina faces the embarrassment of getting hollered racial and transgender slurs by just doing her everyday activities in the streets of New York City. Tina experiences transmisogyny which is the crossing between misogyny and transphobia, which is the hatred against women who were not assigned female at birth. Tina faces multiple layers of discrimination which lead up to the current events in her life that she is experiencing.
Tina, as mentioned previously has not fully transitioned yet and is aiming to start taking hormones. Tina frequently visits her doctor by the name of Dr. Cleary to be approved to start intaking hormones. After many doctor visits Tina was diagnosed with gender dysmorphia which is the feeling of emotionally and physically feeling the opposite sex. By aiming to start taking hormones, Tina is caught up in a financial hardship due to the implications of being an undocumented immigrant as she can not get insurance to help cover the cost of hormones. Tina yet again, is facing another obstacle in the road for her transition as she begins to sell her car for money to afford the hormones. After doing so, Tina again visits Dr. Cleary and is now aware that she has Wilson’s Disease which informs her that she will not be able to intake hormones. While being faced with this disability, Tina can no longer continue her transition and is portrayed as an “evil avenger” which is ‘the stereotype of disabled baddies seeking revenge for the bad deal they have been dealt in life” (Harnett 22). Tina begins to feel feelings of internal revenge and that it is her own body’s fault that she will not be able to transition. Tina begins to question her existence, if she cannot transition she will never be happy. By all these issues meeting in the middle at a crossroad Tina begins to show thoughts and feelings of self-harm to seek her own revenge.
Violence is a main point of focus in this film regarding violence against other transgender women and violence against Tina in her day-to-day life. Towards the start of the film, Tina and her friends create a support group against the violence transgender women face called “#IAMROSIE”. Whilst gaining attention from the media, Tina begins to develop a secret admirer, Chris which evolves into a stalker-like relationship. Chris develops strong feelings of lust towards Tina, which he cannot resist and this bothers him that he is into a transgender women. By developing such strong apparent feelings for Tina, Chris can not longer take it and begins to assault Tina violently on the streets late at night due to that she is transgender, which results in her death. The feelings of transphobia that Chris was experiencing overtook him to participate in such a vile act. This situation could be seen as reality enforcement which is “one treacherous form of identity invalidation; it turns “appearance/reality” incongruence into a perceived misalignment between the public gender presentation and the private sexed body” (Bettcher 14). When a person ‘passes’ as a women although they are transgender they are not usually bothered, but when someone is known as transgender to the public eye they may be viewed as a ‘deceiver’ and violence is more predominant towards known transgender people. If Tina was not so public about her transition a situation like this would probably play out differently.
By all the factors including status, race, being a transgender women, health, and experiencing violence all contribute to Tina’s downfall. By all these factors intersecting and meeting in the middle to create an abundance of unfortunate events which leads to further oppression in Tina’s life. While thinking about a regular citizen, Tina’s life is not the normative thought. Tina is faced with challenges that she wouldn’t face if she had just one of these aspects affecting her life instead of all, which is the idea of intersectionality. Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw and is usually defined as “[seeing] [the] distinctive systems of oppression as being part of one overarching structure of dominations as a system of interlocking race, class and gender oppression” (Kaufman). All of these factors in Tina’s life have to operate simultaneously for the outcome she has now. After analyzing all the systems of oppression in Tina’s life that lead up to her current situation, it is clear that she experiences a very abnormal life in the lenses of others due to her social status and the issues affecting her to move throughout the world successfully.
Word Count: 1080
The Garden Left Behind – Cailey Christensen
The 2019 drama film “The Garden Left Behind”, directed by Flavio Alves, tells a story of the brutality and difficulties the transgender community is facing, even in modern-day society. The protagonist, Tina, is a transgender woman, who at the time was still going through her transition, and was seeking therapeutic help to be granted the opportunity to complete her transition by using costly hormones. Tina was living as an illegal immigrant who left Mexico at the age of 5 and lives in New York with her “Abuela” (Spanish for grandmother) whom she seems to have a good relationship with. Tina and her Abuela seemed to still be heavily in touch with their Mexican roots, making traditional Spanish food, and only speaking Spanish in their household. However, given that Tina was the only economic provider for their household, she underwent a rotation of jobs to afford the cost of living, they lived in a small, cluttered apartment, in what seemed to be a “lower-class” neighborhood. Although Tina’s life was anything but simple and relaxed, her close-net group of friends who also resonated with the transgender community, created a group to support one another and stand up to the cruel treatment of their community. While looking through an intersectional lens, there are a lot of layers encompassing Tina’s life, not only does she have undocumented status in America, but is also a transitioning woman of colour, as well as trying to sustain a healthy, livable lifestyle for her grandmother and herself while facing day-to-day discrimination.
During the film, Tina’s life before immigrating to America was not really talked about, besides the fact that she had immigrated to America at the age of 5, with her Abuela. Since they were both illegal immigrants, neither of them had a Green Card, making it extremely difficult to find a job to support their life in America. It prompted Tina to purchase a fake Green Card, which would give her more opportunities to find a higher paying, sustainable job. Since Tina doesn’t have documented status, her life chances and opportunities are very limited and unequal, access to greater education, proper healthcare, and even necessary commodities like food and shelter are substantially difficult to obtain. Not only does this impact the lives of Tina and her Abuela, but also Tina’s transition. The required hormones needed to complete her transition are extraordinarily expensive, especially for someone like Tina whose economic standing, social status and class, are inferior compared to others.
The movie expressed how difficult it actually is for transgender people to transition. There are multiple factors that affect their transition, for example, being able to afford the costs, but also having the support from the people closest to them. Unfortunately, Tina didn’t have all the support she needed. While Tina and her Abuela did have a good relationship, her Abuela didn’t quite acknowledge Tina’s identity, by still calling her by her given name, Antonio. Along with her boyfriend of 2 years, who did not accept Tina’s transition, wouldn’t bring her around his family or friends, and would often just use her for sexual gratification. Although Tina’s group of friends could relate to her and help her through the process, not having a support system from very important people in her life, make it extremely difficult for Tina to be herself. While having undocumented status in America, it made Tina’s transition much harder, especially by not having insurance to cover healthcare costs. Tina unfortunately has to work really hard just to be able to show her true identity. In order for her to pursue her transition, she had to seek medical therapeutic help so she can be approved. After numerous appointments, her doctor diagnosed her with Gender Dysphoria, which is the feeling of one’s emotional, psychological, and physical identity being opposite to their biological sex. This would obviously put Tina in immense strain, making her feel trapped inside a body that isn’t meant for her. Thus, leading the doctor to approve her to continue her transition with the use of hormones. Once Tina goes through a consultation for the hormones, the doctor unfortunately informs her that she has Wilson’s Disease, making it too dangerous for the use of the hormones. Adding this to her previous Gender Dysphoria condition, Tina felt trapped, alone, and did not want to live a life where she couldn’t truly be herself, making her question whether she should take her own life.
This film really encapsulated the reality of the treatment imposed on the transgender community. During the show, one of Tina’s friend-group members, Rosie, was brutally beaten by two cops while in police custody. This, of course, panics the transgender community, because the people who serve to protect and keep society safe, are arbitrarily using their power, “the reality of domination from those in power: the dominant class do not see themselves as exploiters or oppressors.” (Storey, pg.3). Not only did the police abuse their power, but are feeding into the stigma and putting that community in harm’s way. In opposition, Tina and her friends gathered and rallied together to protest against the treatment of the transgender community, in hopes to get this incident publicized to gain support and receive justice for what happened. Not only did the movie show the discrimination done by police, but also everyday citizens, Tina would often get harassed on the streets while simply walking and minding her own business. The outcome of the story, as an understatement, was very upsetting. It concluded with a man named Chris, who gradually throughout the film developed a “crush” on Tina, ended up brutally attacking and murdering her because of his own Transphobia and unacceptance of himself. “Transgender people shine a light on the artificiality of the gender binary and can thus become the target of great prejudice.” (Trier-Bieniek & Leavy, pg.10), since Tina was open about her sexuality and propelled people to spread awareness, people with oppositional views especially target those who might be a bit flamboyant, or express themselves in a way that does not conform with society’s opinion of “normal”.
When looking at the framework of Tina’s life, there are many layers and factors that gravely amplify and constitute different forms of discrimination. Tina is at a cross-road, met with racism, sexism, and classism. Unfortunately, due to the social construction of society, just because Tina is a transgender, woman of colour, and associated with the “lower-class”, her life opportunities diminish and she faces constant different forms of discrimination for the qualities that form her identity.
Word Count: 1096
Parasite – Tammy Fang
Reelout Film Festival is an amazing event. The film I chose to review is ‘Parasite’. This film is full of tragedy and implied messages. The film began in a small semi-basement apartment where Kim family lived. Kim family consisted of father Ki-taek, mother Chung-sook, daughter Ki-jeong and son Ki-woo. They didn’t have a stable job and they’re too poor to maintain everyday needs such as phone service and internet access. Fortunately, Ki-woo’s friend recommended Ki-woo to be a English tutor of a wealthy girl. With a fake diploma, he was successfully hired by the wealthy Park family. Subsequently, Ki-woo deceived Park’s family to hire his sister, father and mother as separated and professional individuals instead of their original driver and housekeeper. One day, the Park family planned to camp overnight, so the Kim family entered and had fun in the Park’s house without Park’s permission. At this time, the previous housekeeper Moon-gwang came and showed them a secret basement underneath the house where her husband lived. Accidentally, she found out the true relationship between the new workers and threatened them about telling the truth to the Park family. Due to the bad weather, the Park family informed the housekeeper that they were coming back. In a hurry, Kim family caused Moon-gwang’s death which drove her husband crazy. On the second day, the Park family decided to hold a party in their house. The crazy man came out and killed Ki-jeong. In turn, Ki-taek killed the crazy man and Mr. Park, then hid in the secret basement. Ki-woo noticed his father was hiding in the basement and planned to become rich enough to buy the house so that his father could come out.
The first thing that came to my mind was who were the parasites in the film title and why? Obviously, the Kim family gained a large amount of wage from Park family which means they were the parasites of the Park family. Why so? Because of hegemony. The Park family was rich and had a dominant social status over the poor Kim family despite their ability. Although their profession diploma was fake, they worked perfectly well so that the Park family didn’t find out their truth. In contrast, the daughter of the Park family was not good at learning English, and her restless brother behaved nonsense. Mrs. Park did not work outside and did not do the housework either because she had her husband Mr. Park to earn money and a housekeeper to do the housework. Their ability did not match with their status which showed the social inequality.
The social inequality was also shown by the stairways and the odor. The poor people (Kim family and Moon-gwang’s husband) lived in the lower level basement and the rich people lived in a higher level above the ground. Their social classes were represented by the spatial living environment as well. Likewise, the odor was mentioned several times in the film. The son of the Park family was the first one noticed that the smell of the new worker was the same. Mr. Park showed unbearable faces when he got closer to Ki-taek and the crazy man. These rich people were insensitive to the lie of Kim family, but they were sensitive to their smell. The odor represented poverty.
Although the main theme of this film was the social inequality, there were some gender issues that were exposed. Ki-jeong was skillful on editing the picture but she didn’t have a job. From an intersectionality view, the reason might be she was poor and female. She didn’t have a chance to prove and promote herself. On the other hand, the daughter of the Park family was partially ignored by her parents. She started to date with her tutor Ki-woo, but her parents didn’t notice their relationship even at the end of film. Compared to her little brother, her parents paid less attention to her. On her brother’s birthday, she had no choice but to participate in the camping trip. Due to her parents’ neglect, she lost self -esteem. At the time she met Ki-jeong, she was not confident and jealous. She asked whether Ki-woo liked her or not, because she thought Ki-jeong was prettier than her. Her low self-esteem on her appearance might be a result of social evaluation which was emphasized by the video ‘Kill us softly 4’ (Kilbourne et al. 2010). There was a strict evaluation on females or girls in today’s society. They must be sexy, thin, and have a big breast. But in fact, no one can match those criteria. The mismatch of the ideal appearance and the self appearance was killing the true self of females or girls.
Regrading to Mrs. Park, she was a common symbol representing women in popular culture. There was a scene that Mr. Park talked with Ki-taek about his wife. She didn’t go to work and had horrible cooking skills. He could accept her weakness, because the only thing she needed to do was give birth to children and take care of them. When Ki-taek heard it, he said Mr. Park must love his wife very much. Mr. Park sneered. It made me think that he didn’t love his wife that much, and he just treated her as his belonging, an object. This film was produced from the perspective of a man heterosexual viewer, in other word male gaze (Columpar 2002).
The film ‘parasite’ was categorized as comedy but it’s really a tragedy. I couldn’t laugh when I watched the film. At the end of the film, four characters died and three families broke. This tragedy arose from the social class conflict and impressed us about this reality.
Word count: 947
ZEN in the Ice Rift – Directed by Margherita Ferri
By: Shannon Marshall
Zen in the Ice Rift (Zen sul ghiaccio sottile) is a beautiful coming of age story with a twist. The film takes you into the middle of a trans adolescence, but in a more unique way than the average teen story. Through the use of stunning visuals and amazing cinematography, Margherita Ferri’s film creates a “rift” between itself and other projects of its genre and brings a new mode of storytelling to the table. Depicting the challenges that come with trying to be openly yourself, while also creating an artistic masterpiece, this film felt personal, raw, and important.
Our protagonist is Maia Zenardi (who we learn prefers to be called Zen). He an introverted 16-year-old who is biologically female and lives in a small mountain village in the Italian Apennines. Although we never hear him say that he prefers “him” and “he” pronouns in the film, he does eventually open up about how he wishes he was a boy and that he feels trapped in his female form, therefore these are the pronouns that seem most appropriate when describing this character. Zen is a talented hockey player who plays on the community boys’ team and has been scouted by the women’s national league. He is a misunderstood, tomboy who is sensitive, yet passionate and struggles from incessant harassment from his peers, and teammates based on his appearance and more masculine tendencies. We see him trying to ignore the name calling and physical abuse, however on the ice, we see Zen often unable to avoid conflict as he frequently gets punished by his coach and his mother for this behaviour. It is difficult for him to avoid this conflict due to the fact that he wants to assert himself as tough and masculine, someone who is able to take on the bullies in a “macho” way. However, because he is biologically female, he often is unable to defend himself due to his size and therefore suffers even further. This combination between being biologically female and transsexual is an example of intersectionality and the ways in which the hegemonic norms of this small, Italian town are able to discriminate against Zen in ways that combine to make his situation even more oppressive (Kaufman).
Paralleling Zen’s plot is that of Vanessa, the girlfriend of the hockey team’s captain who’s struggling with her own questions surrounding sexual attraction. In order to spend an intimate time with her boyfriend, she coerces Zen into lending her the key to the lodge Zen’s mother rents out. But after a disastrous “first time”, Vanessa runs away from home the next day, and returns to the lodge in an attempt to sort out her emotions. It’s only then that she and Zen slowly form a bond as outsiders and share their most deeply felt selves. Vanessa attempts to clarify her true sexual attraction and Zen tells her how he feels about wishing he was a boy as he looks into a mirror, disliking his feminine reflection. Vanessa then kisses Zen who gets confused and makes Vanessa return to her family and life.
Although the narrative line of a transsexual teen being bullied due to their difference is not necessarily unique on its own, what makes this film particularly special is the way in which the story is told to the audience and the artistic tools used in doing so. The acting and simplicity of the script makes the story seem very real and believable. It reminds the audience of those extraordinary and confusing times we face as we grow up and come into our own. We are reminded of the restlessness of being an outsider as a teenager; the magic of being attracted to someone without knowing what is happening or even how to name those feelings and the desire to be seen and accepted for who you are. This film does a spectacular job at capturing those raw emotions. For example, the opening scene depicts Zen laying down in the middle of a forest. He then suddenly flips off the audience, showcasing his relentless desire to be authentic at the cost of fitting in, as well as foreshadowing his struggle with understanding who he is. The concept of the “emotional landscape” as an artistic tool is used to visually engage the audience into exploring the inner dimensions of the character. The peaceful lush spaces, mountain tops, and bustling wilderness are all reflections of the young teen’s thoughts, feelings and mind states. These images aid to mirror Zen’s crippling isolation, repressed rage, and quiet desperation, but also his moments of calming solitude and connection. More specifically, throughout the film, there are shots of glaciers in all their various forms. At the beginning of the story we see and hear glaciers slowly starting to move and then by the end of the film we see images of the ice formations thawing and breaking completely. It seems as though these images are used in order to demonstrate the ways in which Zen’s icy exterior is slowly starting to melt as he allows himself to be vulnerable to Vanessa. But, we not only see him letting others in, we also see him become more comfortable with himself, even starting to be friendly with some of his teammates.
However, one of the most interesting points in the film is when we see Zen get betrayed by Vanessa and his new found sense of comfort comes crashing down around him. Vanessa returns to her family and friends after being “missing”, taking refuge at Zen’s lodge, but she then tells everyone that he locked her up there likely due to the fact that he rejected her after their kiss. This point nearing the end of the film highlighted really well the ways in which Zen could never seem to have anything go right for him. His whole life he had been closed off, and for good reason, he was never accepted and constantly assaulted for simply trying to walk the line between the masculine and the feminine. Then, right as he starts to let his guard down and begins to trust someone, he is immediately betrayed. The fact that people were so quick to believe that Zen could be the villain in this scenario was smart and seemingly a reflection of the ways in which queer people are often seen as being evil and villainous on screen and off in a phenomenon called “queercoding” (Rowan, 10:28-20:05). Because the audience is aware of Zen’s innocence, we are able to empathize with the struggles that come from this sort of stereotyping and discrimination. In the end, the audience is left with a sense of hope as Zen changes his name in the locker room from Maia to Zen. Finally, we see him enter the skating rink alone with a willful look of determination in his eyes. He then takes off on the ice, continuing to work to get on the women’s national team and to get to a place of self-acceptance.
Word Count: 1088
Reelout: Kingston, Ontario's Queer Film & Video Festival 