John Cameron Mitchell, creator and star of the long running off-Broadway rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, has adapted his stage hit for the screen. Winner of the Sundance 2001 Audience and Director awards and the 2001 Berlin Teddy Award, this film tells the story of a transsexual would-be rock star. East German teenage boy Hansel agrees to a sex change operation in order to marry an older American man, thus becoming Hedwig. Shortly after their arrival in Kansas, Hedwig’s husband abandons her and she falls in love with confused 17-year-old Tommy, who steals her songs to become a rock superstar. The former soulmates’ paths continue to intersect as the Glam Era-inspired Hedwig rocks her way through the tragic story of her life, singing her soul nightly to audiences at a local restaurant chain. Visual flash and a retro-kitsch sensibility create the campy, underground appeal.

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Neither sensational nor sentimental, the remarkable Southern Comfort is a documentary about 52-year-old female-to-male transsexual Robert Eads who, dying of cervical and ovarian cancer, is neglected by doctors uncomfortable with treating him. “A hillbilly and proud of it,” Robert cuts a striking figure in his home in the Georgia black hills, where he falls deeply in love with male-to-female transsexual Lola Cola. Director Kate Davis functioned as a one-person crew in order to intimately capture this rare blend of humor, romance, and tragedy. Even though Southern Comfort (the title refers to a support group peopled by Eads and his transgender friends) is as much about generosity, courage, and tolerance as it is about a potentially discomfitting subject, the film sent shock waves through the Sundance Film Festival where it won the award for Best Documentary Film. As Eads tries to find help for his condition, his resolute kindness, dignity and compassion in the face of adversity help him build a community of friends and gives Southern Comfort its punch.

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This film chronicles poet Audre Lorde’s broad social vision and the translation of that vision into a historic transnational conference, “I Am Your Sister: Forging Global Connections Across Differences,” which took place in Boston in October, 1990. Intrinsically important in the second wave of the US Feminist movement, Lorde (1934-1992), through her 15 books of poetry and prose, consistently challenged racism, sexism and homophobia, serving as a catalyst for change within and among social movements.

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