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Sex Change-Shock! Horror! Probe!
1988, 58 minutes

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Media type
Country of origin

England

Production company

Spot On Productions

Technical specs

Colour

video

Languages

English/English

Content Warnings
transphobia
Description

Broadcast on Channel 4 in the spring of 1989, Kris Clarke's documentary is the first ever programme broadcast in the UK about transsexualism by a transsexual filmmaker and finally took up the issues from the unique perspective of transgendered people instead of showing us as a deviant minority or victims of psychopathology under an expert's microscope. Discussion of sex reassignment is treated straightforwardly, taken out of the realm of horror film scenes and tabloid sensationalism and shown to be directly relevant to social health and well-being and identity. Featured are "Fascinating Aida" star Adele Anderson, who was 'outed' by the press, bus driver Stephanie Anne Lloyd, who doesn't want any special accommodations from society, feminist and Labour counsellor Rachel Webb who would like to return to lorry driving but knows she would be discriminated against as a woman in that profession and Mark Rees, an early activist who went to the European Court of Human Rights to try to get his birth certificate altered to read boy. Eight years later Press for Change is still fighting the same battles in the European courts.

“The First International Transgender Film & Video Festival Program.” London: Alchemy and Transmutation, 1997. Personal Archives.

Cast & Crew
Crew
Distribution
Distributors
Channel 4
Screenings

1997-11-02 2:00 PM

London International Transgender Film and Video Festival

Archives