Orlando, My Political Biography
Spanish writer and philosopher Paul B. Preciado makes his directorial debut with this intriguing study on gender inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando – the stories of a male Elizabethan courtier’s transformation into a 20th-century woman – has been interpreted and reinterpreted since its publication as a statement on gender and its fluidity. One could argue that transgender director Paul B. Preciado’s interpretation of this modernist masterpiece is incomplete or idiosyncratic, given it ignores Woolf’s commentary on English society, but such selective engagement when crafting one’s relationship with 'great' art is a longstanding tradition and the right of all.
Throughout Orlando, My Political Biography, 26 trans and nonbinary people introduce themselves by announcing to the camera that they will become Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Around their lived testimonies that capture aspects of Preciado’s personal transformation, there are meta-cinematic touches. Outfits, makeup, and microphones are adjusted between monologues, and cameras keep rolling after a scene concludes to capture discussions of new ways to perform the scene in question, drawing attention to the performance of gender on screen. But as Preciado notes, “fiction is not opposed to truth.” Constructing an “Orlandoesque life” is perilous in the face of laws, history, medicine and its limits, psychiatry and its prejudices, traditions, and corporations with vested interests.
Despite beautiful, binary-shattering designs and irreverent asides, Orlando, My Political Biography never quite figures out how its form equals its content, making its 100-minute run time feel long. However, in an age where trans lives are consistently and ruthlessly under attack, it is a powerful affirmation that LGBTQIA+ history is inseparable from literary, world, and all histories.
Released 5 Jul by Picturehouse; certificate 12A