ORLANDO: MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
HELD OVER THROUGH JANUARY 18. Academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado tells stories of transition through unique reenactments and visual interpretations of Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando: A Biography.”
SHOWTIMES
JAN 5 | FRI
4:50, 7:10, 9:20 p.m.
JAN 6 | SAT
12:30, 2:40, 4:50, 7:10, 9:20 p.m.
JAN 7 | SUN
4:50, 7:10 p.m.
JAN 8 | MON
CANCELLED
JAN 9 | TUE
CANCELLED
JAN 10 | WED
4:50, 7:10 p.m.
JAN 11 | THU
4:50, 7:10 p.m.
JAN 12 | FRI
CANCELLED
JAN 13 | SAT
CANCELLED
JAN 14 | SUN
CANCELLED
JAN 15 | MON
CLOSED FOR HOLIDAY
JAN 16 | TUE
7:35 p.m.
JAN 17 | WED
4:50 p.m.
JAN 18 | THU
[7:10 p.m. SCREENING CANCELLED]
SYNOPSIS
“Come, come! I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another.” Taking Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando: A Biography as its starting point, academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado has fashioned the documentary, Orlando: My Political Biography, as a personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto which premiered and took home four prizes at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. For almost a century, Woolf’s eponymous hero/heroine has inspired readers for their gender fluidity across physical and spiritual metamorphoses over a 300-year lifetime.
Preciado casts a diverse cross-section of more than twenty trans and non-binary individuals in the role of Orlando as they perform interpretations of scenes from the novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of identity and transition. Not content to simply update a seminal work, Preciado interrogates the relevance of Orlando in the continuing struggle against anti-trans ideologies and in the fight for global trans rights.
Director
Paul B. Preciado
Run Time
1 hour, 38 minutes
Released
November 10, 2023 (limited)
Distributed by
Janus Films
HEARING AND VISUAL ASSISTANCE
Assisted Listening
Subtitles / Open Captions
Country
France
SUBTITLES
French with English Subtitles
NOT RATED
Many of the films shown at The Ross are not rated due to the prohibitive cost of acquiring a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Consequently, as many of these films contain graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.
REVIEWS
“Sparklingly intelligent, Godard-puckish and moving, capable of deadpan wit and the most intimate swirl of ideas and emotions.“
“With Orlando, My Political Biography, Preciado has crafted a towering manifesto that’s as nimble in presenting abstracted gender theorizations as it is in capturing moving emotional truths.”
“Preciado’s lightness of touch and intellectual nimbleness buoys the movie, lifting both it and you.”