The movie "Man Made," one of 218 narrative and documentary shorts, feature films and web series at the 31st Out on Film Festival, definitely qualifies as homemade.
Director T Cooper, an Emory University creative writing professor, chronicles multiple competitors at an Atlanta-based event: Trans FitCon, the world's only all-transgender body building competition. And the film arrives at the festival with local accolades, having won Best Documentary at the 2018 Atlanta Film Festival.
For three decades, Out on Film has specialized in cinema by and about the LGBTQ communities, with this year’s line-up including such features as “The Happy Prince,” starring Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde, and “Ideal Home,” casting Paul Rudd and Steve Coogan as a bickering gay couple. In recent years, transgender and transexual issues have increasingly gained national attention, and this year’s festival reflects a new vitality in trans-themed cinema.
“We are lucky to have several films and documentaries in our line-up this year — “Man Made,” “TransMilitary,” “The Queens,” “TransGeek,” “Venus” and “Call Her Ganda,” as well as several short films — with trans issues,” says program director Jim Farmer. “There have been years where we have had to look really hard. We have a lot more to choose from these days among our submissions. That is a good problem to have.”
“Man Made” director Cooper has written extensively on gender as both a novelist and memoirist, chronicling his female-to-male (FTM) transition. He learned about Trans FitCon, which accepts any participant who identifies as FTM, soon after moving to Atlanta with his family, and considered writing a magazine article about it.
“But then I felt like it needed to be more, it felt more dynamic and living and breathing,” Cooper says. “I wanted to do a traditional competition documentary like ‘Spellbound’ or ‘Murderball.’ I realized pretty quickly who I wanted to follow: there were so many different physical and emotional journeys.”
“Man Made,” which screens 7 p.m., Oct. 3, at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, tracks subjects who reflect different facets of the trans experience. During the year between competitions, Dominic undergoes a double mastectomy and meets his long-lost birth mother; Mason “passes” as non-trans at a body building competition; Rese, an Atlanta native, discusses bouts of homelessness and having a son who calls him “mommy;” and Kennie embraces the early stages of identifying as a man, creating tension with his openly lesbian girlfriend.
“We don’t see a lot of trans male stories in mainstream culture, so for me to offer several versions gives you an idea of what that’s like. There’s not just one version of being a female-to-male trans person,” says Cooper. “There isn’t just one version of masculinity.”
“Man Made” takes more than a skin-deep look at pumping iron and the physical aspects of body building. “It’s a metaphor for what all trans people do. And what all people do, from the minute we’re born, we build our lives. To me, that’s a very rich metaphor for storytelling — they’re building a life.”
At a time when controversies arise over non-trans celebrities being cast in trans roles, Cooper is proud of having spent more than three years creating a “trans-made” film. “I just feel that more trans stories should be told by trans people, written by trans people, acted by trans people,” he says. “Let us tell at least as many as everyone else — it doesn’t have to be more and doesn’t have to be less.”
He believes his inside-looking-out perspective gives him the freedom and insight to make a film that’s both honest and hopeful. “I’m not saying that life is perfect all the time, but positivity is a powerful message. So often people from outside the community focus on tragedy to make people care. It’s not that those stories aren’t important, but those aren’t the only ones.”
FESTIVAL PREVIEW
Out on Film. Sept. 27-Oct. 7. $11. $30, three-movie pass. $175-$200, VIP pass. Landmark Midtown Art Cinema, 931 Monroe Drive. Out Front Theatre Co., 999 Brady Ave. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. www.outonfilm.org
More Out on Film highlights
‘When the Beat Drops’
The opening night feature explores the vibrant Atlanta subculture of “bucking,” in which underground dance crews battle with moves influenced by college majorette routines from the early 1990s. Director Jamal Sims traces the community’s artistry and camaraderie, finding a fascinating central figure in Anthony “Big Tony” Davis, who suffered a tragic setback as a dancer and serves as a nurturing but no-nonsense coach to younger ones. Drawing on contemporary rehearsals and old VHS recordings of competitions at Club Traxx, the film’s energetic, heartfelt portrayal culminates with the intricate and athletic choreography at a competition called “The Big Buck.”
7 p.m. Sept. 27, Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
‘Every Act of Life’
Documentarian Jeff Kaufman can barely keep up with the long, prolific career of four-time Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally. Raised closeted in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the 1950s, McNally found enduring success on Broadway by crafting such relevant, luminous works over the decades as “Love! Valour! Compassion!” With candor that never feels gossipy, the film touches on McNally’s romantic relationships, which include playwrights Edward Albee and Wendy Wasserstein. Charming interviewees include McNally himself and collaborators such as Edie Falco, Nathan Lane and Audra McDonald. The film feels more like a “Greatest Hits” showreel than a close look at the creative process, but it’s never less than enjoyable.
7:05 p.m. Oct. 1, Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
‘Wild Nights With Emily’
Formerly of “Saturday Night Live,” Molly Shannon made a powerful impression in the drama “Other People” at the 2016 Out on Film Festival. This year she gives a sensitive but wry portrayal of iconic American poet Emily Dickinson in this off-beat docudrama. Writer/director Madeleine Olnek uses an irreverent, post-modern structure to explore the literary theory that Dickinson and her brother’s wife Sue (Susan Ziegler) were lovers for decades. The film struggles with its tonal shifts, heavy-handed satire and a low budget, at times looking like an expanded “Drunk History” sketch. But it also offers a thoughtful tribute to how the woman and her work were neglected during her life and served other people’s agendas after her death, until posterity finally took notice.
7 p.m. Oct. 6, Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
‘Mapplethorpe’
In the festival’s closing night film, English actor Matt Smith, best known for his acclaimed stint on “Doctor Who,” time-travels to bohemian New York in the 1970s and 1980s to portray controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. The biopic offers a familiar rags-ro-riches rise of an arrogant, self-destructive genius, with a point of view that seems constricted: his youthful romance with future rocker Patti Smith (Marianne Rendon) makes a major part of the first act, but she drops out of the film almost completely. It benefits enormously from the inclusion of the photographer’s actual black-and-white images, including sensuous, impeccably composed flowers as well as explicit sexual depictions. His work looks as provocative now as when they were new.
9 p.m. Oct. 6, Landmark Midtown Art Cinema.
