This new movie club explores transness and identity in popular film

You take the blue pill . . . the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill . . . you go to the Wonderland that is Paradise Theatre, and comedian Alice Rose shows you how deep the rabbit hole of gender and transness in film goes. 

Trans comedian Alice Rose (she/her) will curate and host a new screening series at Paradise Theatre, called Untucked. “It’s a film series that explores transness and identity in popular film,” she says. “Its my way of unapologetically dissecting all the movies that impacted me and my gender identity.” 

To kick off the series, Rose will screen the wonderfully affirming ‘90s hit The Matrix on January 25th. 

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Rose will introduce each film with a comedic monologue that relates the trans elements of the film – whether implicit or explicit – to her own experiences of gender and transness. 

“We’re talking about very serious subjects and things that are very personal to me, but I don’t want to take it too seriously,” she says. “It’s less about a pretentious cinematic exploration and more about reclaiming stories that have been told about us, and celebrating them.” 

She intends for each monologue, made up of new material she’s working out for the first time, to be both deeply personal and universal. 

Each film will be followed by an informal conversation and cocktails. 

Rose has been a comedian for five years. She has opened for such greats as Colin Mochrie and Elvira Kurt. She produced Gender Outlaws (a showcase of trans/nonbinary/gender-nonconforming comedians) for JFL42. She is cofounder of Comic Sans Productions, a production company devoted to LGBTQ+ and marginalized performance artists. 

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Not all films in the series will be clearcut positive trans stories – it’s going to be more of a “for better or worse” proposition, she says. 

“Take Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, for example,” she says “the whole premise is a trans panic and the big joke in that movie is he beats up a trans woman.” 

“I want to create a supportive, queer-specific space full of likeminded people where we can even look at movies that don’t hold up, that are uncomfortable, and ask ourselves why, and look at how we’ve grown, and maybe still find a way to laugh and enjoy and celebrate them.” 

To begin, the screenings will take place every other month at Paradise Theatre. Some of the films Rose is looking forward to screening are Silence of the Lambs (put the lotion in the basket!), Osama, Antiviral, Tootsie, Tangerine and Breakfast on Pluto.

“It’s all about taking these films and putting them in context and starting a discussion with them,” she says. 

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Here are some other queer cinema groups worth adding to your watch list: 

Queer Cinema Club - https://www.peterknegt.com/queercinemaclub

Drag Me to the Movies - https://www.instagram.com/dragmetothemovies/

Evil Woman - https://www.instagram.com/evilwomeninparadise/

Gay Writes - https://www.gaywrites.ca/