QUEER CINEMA
Tangerine 15
USA | 2015 88 minutes
DIRECTED BY
Sean Baker
STARRING
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez |Mya Taylor|Karren Karagulian
Welcome to the raucous Los Angeles world of Sin-Dee Rella and her transgender sex-worker friends. Sin-Dee’s boyfriend, Chester, has been cheating on her while she was serving a 4-week jail sentence ... and, what’s more, with a white cisgender woman! She receives this unexpected information from her best girlfriend Alexandra, and after that there is no stopping Sin-Dee in her mission to track down the pair and give them their just deserts.
The British Board of Film Classification says there is ‘strong language, sex, sex references, drug misuse’, but it is certified 15. Anyway, that’s enough of warnings. It’s actually a funny film, building to a farcical denouement in the local hang-out, Donut Time, and draws on the strong relationships between the girls.
Made on a micro-budget of about US$100,000, and filmed on three Apple iPhone 5S smartphones (obsolete now, probably), the film almost made its money back in its first weekend after release. Box-office takings have since multiplied to about eight times the cost of making the film. So, it just shows you what you might be able to do with those old phones stashed in that drawer!
Tangerine has found many plaudits and is particularly important for its vivid portrayal of transgender characters and its promotion of transgender actors.
29 April 2024 MONDAY 19:30
GREEN ROOM BAR
Tickets £7.00|£5.00 (up to age 25)