Silent No More

[July 12th, 2006] This Sunday, the Independent Film Channel airs Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema, which covers a unique celluloid genre that over the past 30 years has altered filmmaking.

Toward the end of the documentary, though, something weird happens. The more forward-thinking directors declare Queer Cinema dead—absorbed into the mainstream like every other gay phenomenon. In the future, these directors believe, a new, New Queer Cinema will replace the old one, and they say it will come from the other end of the GLBT acronym, from our tranny friends.

Which brings us to Portland.

Eliza Greenwood is a 26-year-old Portland producer-director who, along with co-director Selena Staley, is $5,000 shy of completing Austin Unbound. I had a chance to see just 13 minutes of this unique documentary-in-progress and, I have to tell you, it was like prying into someone's secret diary. Austin Unbound is an intimate, intense peek into the life of a 33-year-old deaf, transgendered local boy as he goes through the process of transitioning from "she" to "he." It's a complex profile—think Murderball meets Transamerica—of not just one but two worlds Greenwood believes she can equally, and accurately, present.

"My sister is deaf, and I'm non-hetero-normative," said Greenwood during lunch in Northwest Portland. That's why she considers herself part of both the "queer" and "deaf" communities, even though she has a boyfriend and hears just fine.

As odd as that gobbledygook may sound, it makes more sense when applied to a project like Austin Unbound. That's because labels like male/female, gay/straight, deaf/hearing don't apply for folks like Austin or Greenwood. They are members of a "queer" generation who look at their sexuality and gender as fluid. They represent a true break from the Queer Cinema of the past. Armed with a video camera, these transgressors are physically reshaping their futures, ready to tell their stories and refusing to be bound by what Greenwood calls an "outdated binary belief system."

In the nonbinary system, everything is one thing or another or another. (Yep, I'm confused, too.) Born female, Austin has detached from "all that" and now identifies as a straight man. Ever since he was a little girl, Austin knew he was a little boy, and, one of eight female-to-male deaf guys in Portland (who knew?), he was first to come out with his story.

Greenwood's challenge is technical. "I set out to tell this story from Austin's perspective, and sound is the biggest issue facing this film," she said. "I have to make sure I don't lose his voice."

As for the future of Queer Cinema, with projects like Austin Unbound, it looks like we'll have new voices to listen to.

Fabulous!