film review
film: The Brandon Teena Story (1998)
Documenting the tragic tale of a transgender man from rural Nebraska who was murdered after two locals discovered his female origins, director Susan Muska delves into the story of Brandon Teena — born Teena Brandon — through a number of revealing sources. News footage and documents from the time of the murder lay out the facts of the case, while Muska conducts interviews with those closest to Teena, including several ex-girlfriends, to piece together a life and a crime.
In this class we have identified as one of our objectives the ability to fully engage, in critical ways, popular culture and its influence upon our political selves, our political sensibilities. With our focus on “deep differences” we find ourselves examining both documentary and feature-length film texts.
In 300-500 words share whether or not you believe the assigned documentary film text has the potential to transform one’s political sensibilities and how the documentary film text compares to the feature-length non-documentary film text that examines the same historical political movement and/or figure. And, if you believe that your personal political sensibilities have been (re)shaped or transformed by a particular film and/or style of film, say so. Again, the objective here is to share your thoughts pertaining to the major thesis presented in Democracy and Difference.
