“Awkward, self-conscious Adam Freeman (Nicholas Alexander) has just finished his junior year of high school in 2006. When his cool older sister Casey (Margaret Qualley) suggests he visit her in New York for the Summer, Adam has visions of meeting a girl and finally gaining some actual life experience. The fantasy doesn’t materialize exactly as expected. Casey has enthusiastically embraced life amidst Brooklyn’s young LGBTQ community and invites Adam to tag along with her to queer bars, marriage equality rallies, and other happenings. When Adam falls at first sight for Gillian (Bobbi Salvör Menuez), a smart, beautiful young woman in this new crowd, she mistakenly assumes he is trans. Flummoxed and enamored, he haplessly goes along with her assumption, resulting in an increasingly complex comedy – and tragedy – of errors he’s ill-equipped to navigate.” – Wolfe Video
"ADAM engages its audience with an introduction to a trans masc discovery narrative (through a trans lens) with a clever inversion of the identity of the protagonist. The use of a cis male protagonist serves as a way to show details of a transition story while removing the voyeuristic aspect of an audience watching transition (because there is no actual transition in the film) and is a nod to trans deception tropes. Just as the reboot of Tales of the City captures the feeling of queer spaces today, ADAM shows what those spaces looked like and how they were shaped 15 years ago when they were in the middle of a new understanding of gender, processing their transphobia, and messing up along the way, just as cis audiences are now, arguably." – Kat Cory, local filmmaker
Programmers note: I am aware of the controversy surrounding this film. I decided to show it after screening it myself and talking with/getting feedback from a number of trans folks who had also had the opportunity to see it. They felt overwhelmingly positive about it. Please come and see it for yourself and be part of the conversation.
Update: Unfortunately Kai is unable to attend due to the Yom Kippur holiday. (Local trans filmmaker, Kai Tillman, will join us for a talk back after the show.)
Guest passes accepted.