Tangerine 2015 fish12/10/2023 Meanwhile, taxi driver Razmik (Baker regular Karren Karagulian) divides his time between hoiking vomiting drunks out of his cab and getting paid-for relief in a car wash while maintaining the illusion of “respectable” family life. Enlisting the less-than-enthusiastic help of best friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor), Sin-Dee tears through a string of local haunts, creating smart-mouthed chaos as she searches for the errant lovers while Alexandra attempts to ready herself (“no drama!”) for an evening singing gig. Newcomer Kitana Kiki Rodriguez brings a punchy authenticity to the role of Sin-Dee, a transgender sex worker on a Christmas Eve warpath for her pimp boyfriend, Chester (James Ransone), who’s been cheating on her with a non-trans newcomer while she was in prison. It’s not the first phone-footage film (forerunners include Olive, shot on a Nokia N8 in 2011), but it’s certainly the best looking, using prototype anamorphic lens adapters to capture gorgeous widescreen vistas while shooting on the fly in the streets, burger bars and doughnut joints of LA. Danny Boyle’s film could equally well have ended with scenes from Sean Baker’s Tangerine, a vibrantly colourful feature shot entirely on a modified iPhone 5s. Seeing this represented in mainstream cinemas is encouraging, making the content of the film as relevant to contemporary times as the way it has been made.This week’s big release, Steve Jobs, opens with black-and-white footage of science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke eerily predicting a future in which compact personal computers are an integral part of our everyday lives. But, ultimately, Tangerine reminds us that the real violence comes from outside of this community in the perpetuation of society norms. It has its own problems with representation, particularly the reiteration of blackness and aggression in Sin Dee’s violent treatment of Dinah. It appropriates and subverts racism, misogyny, homophobia and trans phobia. Like Paris is Burning, this is a film that warrants a close up reading. Importantly, it also draws attention to the most vulnerable, those most at risk of violence, those most likely to be remembered. Broil 4 inches away from the heat for 5 minutes. Drizzle with canola oil and sprinkle lightly with salt on both sides. Tangerine offers a wildly different insight into transgender lives and could be dismissed as sensationalist if it were not filmed in a nonjudgmental way. Place the fish in a shallow baking tray lined with foil. The final showdown takes place in the Donut Hut, and the subsequent fall-out offers a surprisingly tender and compassionate insight into the multiple ways that people live on the margins, their isolation, and the importance of friendship and forgiveness. In the meantime, Alexandra walks the streets and picks up Raznik (Karren Karagulian), an Armenian cab driver who is married but frequently pays to perform oral sex on pre-operative trans women. Alexandra mistakenly guesses that she’s finished with him for sleeping around, which sets Sin Dee off on the trail of Dinah (Mickey O’Hagan) the “white fish” (slang for a white cisgendered woman) he has been cheating with. Set on Christmas Eve, Sin Dee is happy to be out of jail after a 28-day sentence and has a secret she wants to share with Alexandra about her pimp/boyfriend Chester (James Ransone). The script was co-crafted with the lead actors and draws on their own experiences and anecdotes of street work and survival around trade, transactions, drugs, pimps, friendship, betrayal, violence and care. While the development community Paul moves to is like his Houston home as both were new developments built on newly cleared. It is filmed on a super low budget using a $8 phone app that delivers a close up, social realist edge to a story that crosses the boundaries of drama and documentary. Tangerine opens with Paul Fisher, a seventh grader from Houston, Texas, moving to Florida with his family after his father gets a job in Tangerine County, Florida. Tangerine offers a chance to revisit these issues, and is receiving similar levels of attention. The legacy of the film can be measured in its influence at the time and it remains an important reference point in courses on LGBT history and queer studies today. Its popularity was far reaching and it drew significant attention from feminist and queer scholars offering different interpretations. Paris is Burning garnered widespread positive critical appraisal and won a Sundance Film Festival Jury prize.
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