“Come, come! I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another.” Taking Virginia Woolf’s novel “Orlando: A Biography” as his starting point, academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado fashioned the documentary ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY—a personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto. For almost a century, Woolf’s eponymous hero(ine) has inspired readers with their gender fluidity as well as their physical and spiritual metamorphoses across a three-hundred-year span. In making his film, Preciado invited a diverse group of more than twenty trans and nonbinary people to play the role of Orlando and to participate in this shared biography. Together, they perform interpretations of the novel, weaving into Woolf’s narrative their own stories of transition and identity formation. Not content to simply update a groundbreaking work, Preciado interrogates the relevance of “Orlando” in the ongoing struggle to secure dignity for trans people worldwide.
This event will be in person. Doors will open at 6:00 PM and the program will begin at 6:15 PM. Please be sure to register and come early to snag a seat! Screening will be followed by a conversation between Jesse Beal, director of the U-M Spectrum Center, and Laurie Pohutsky, the Speaker Pro Tempore for the MI House of Representatives and representative of the 17th House District in Livonia and the audience.
If you anticipate needing accommodations to participate or would like help filling out the registration form, please email Giselle Mills at gimills@umich.edu. Please note that some accommodations must be arranged in advance and we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible.
This event is the first of Fall 2024 by DISCO Network programming, titled "Search Engines," funded by the U-M Arts Initiative with support from the DISCO Network and Digital Studies Institute
Thank you to the following co-sponsors: Spectrum Center Department of American Culture Institute for Research on Women and Gender Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing Communication and Media
