71 Tangerine (2015)

Authentic Transgender Representation in Tangerine (2015)

By Bridgette Blansett

Transgender representation of women of color is not a topic that is easily broached in film, making it so there are not very many films. Tangerine (2015) was directed and co-written by Sean Baker who is a white straight male, and that characterization alone might make it hard to believe that the representation of transgender women of color would be accurate and free of harsh stereotyping. However, upon its release at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, it was found to be provoking and artfully composed. The diversified portrayal of trans-women in Los Angeles’ unofficial “red light district” provided a unique view for severely underrepresented members of the queer community. Through the use of color visual design, continuity editing, cinematography, sound design, and literary design, Tangerine represents transgender women that provide viewers with authentic and compelling characters to represent marginalized communities and their bonds within.

In an article in the New York Times, the director of Tangerine, Sean Baker, said the idea for the film came to him at a location near Hollywood that “ was the corner of Santa Monica and Highland, which is an unofficial red-light district. It’s half a mile from my home” (Murphy). This particular location shows the duality of economic activity in Hollywood. While there are other areas of Hollywood known as “tracks,” areas where prostitute activity is common, there are boundaries between them and the kinds of gender prostitutes to be found. Santa Monica and Highland were particularly exclusive to transgenders. A scene in Tangerine makes a reference to this as Razmik, a taxi driver who is a regular of Alexandra and Sin-Dee, mistakenly picks up a cisgender woman prostitute thinking she was transgender and, upon realizing his mistake, gets upset and blames it on her saying, “That’s the wrong track for you” (00:31:02). This scene shows the differences of the tracks around Hollywood and that the film, and its characters, are confined mainly to this location where people are expecting to find transgender prostitutes specifically.

Alexandra’s character, outside of helping Sin-Dee track down her cheating boyfriend, spends a lot of time handing out fliers for her performance that night. As she comes across fellow transgender women, we see various kinds of representations of gender affirmative stages. Each woman represents a different race or ethnicity and different stages of transition so that the viewer is not restricted to the main two characters representations of trans bodies. This representation directly contradicts Hollywood style that typically tries to keep everything “easily digestible” and not challenging for the viewer to understand. In Recognize Me!: An Analysis of Transgender Media Representation, Jackson Taylor McLaren writes on this improvement as “these…represent a move in a more positive and complex direction for the representation of fictional transgender characters” (McLaren, 107). Giving the viewer a more nuanced view of the lives of transgender women through these cinematographic element aids the diversification in more prominent media.

The portrayal of power dynamics between characters had a unique approach despite the seemingly heavy nature around its context. Sin-Dee’s boyfriend is a pimp, and while that power dynamic does not phase Sin-Dee’s character in the least she faces some negative reaction from Dinah, the woman she found out her boyfriend cheated on her with and who she practically kidnaps to confront him about it. Dinah laughs at Sin-Dee and tells her that no one like them truly dates their pimp and that she is naive in thinking that way. After the confrontation ends, we find out that their pimp is indeed Sin-Dee’s boyfriend. The power dynamic is then between Sin-Dee, and cisgender Dinah. Sin-Dee, while forcefully dragging Dinah across Hollywood, makes a stop at Alexandra’s show, which she deems more important than immediately finding her cheating boyfriend. This scene is heavy in the color red. The majority of the film is very saturated and bright. Usually in movies that carry heavy themes, the tones are very cool to signal to the viewer the reality of the situations the characters face. The lighthearted and almost comedic attitude of the characters as the movie unfolds is paired with orange saturation in nearly every scene. Despite this contrast, the characters feel very personable and authentic. In this scene, red is almost melodramatic as Sin-Dee seems to take pity on Dinah, cleaning her up and putting a little makeup on her (0:55:01). Sisterhood is not exclusive to transgenders and cisgenders respectively. This display of compassion is a shared moment that bridges the two groups into solidarity with one another.

The main characters face very little pushback directly for the majority of the film, they do experience systematic oppression in the form of the attitude around their identity. When they do catch a passing comment, it is usually about how they are men and not women. Near the ending of the film, Sin-Dee experiences an act of hate from a passing car. They whistled her over like they would any other prostitute, but as she drew near to them, they threw a cup of urine in her face (01:23:19). This scene, a display of hate that transgender people face, which had not been addressed thus far in the film. However, it was also used to show sisterhood in the community as Alexandra gave her her own wig to replace the one that had been ruined. In his review of Tangerine, film critic Mckinley Green talks about Alexandra and Sin-Dees relationship being that of “emotional support (that) constructs lines of intimacy and kinship” (121). While the characters seem generally unfazed and nonreactive to misgendering comments, when they are faced with outward acts of hate the characters come together in sisterhood and community.

While the film does bring representations of certain marginalized communities, it has been critiqued for not directly exploring the central issues that the transgender community faces. There were not any specific issues that the characters face in being transgender women of color, or any negotiations made in its depictions. However, this does not steer viewers away from the film. Green says that the director “largely avoided essentializing and stereotyping his characters, working closely with Taylor and Rodriguez throughout the screenwriting and film phases in order to develop a sincere story and Ernest depiction of the Los Angeles Neighborhood”(Green, 120). While Baker does not personally identify with the communities represented in this film, he actively refined the literary design of this film through the outreach and collaborated with the leads of Tangerine to provide authentic representations.

This film was mentioned in the textbook America on Film and sparked my interest. I thought the use of iPhone S’s to film the movie was very unique and I was interested to see how a community I had never interacted with or seen representation of would look to me. In my research on this film I learned about how much this film meant to the LGBTQIA+ community, specifically those who were represented in this film directly. It is not very common in today’s media, and yet this was made in 2015 in a time I would not have expected such non-stereotyped representations to have been shown in a film that garnered such popularity.

Through the use of color, editing, literary design and depicting a community of transgender women that were entirely underrepresented, Tangerine had garnered popularity at its release and continues to stand as a film for the LGBTQIA+ community to feel representation. The use of saturated colors enhanced the emotional feel of the film in both humorous and heartfelt ways to showcase the lives of these transgender women of color. Tangerine consisted of continuity editing that followed the day of Alexandra, Sin-Dee, and Razmik as the viewer learned about those Hollywood areas and the prominent communities within. In the literary design we are shown displays of sisterhood and community when facing hardship and betrayal through the relationship between Alexandra and Sin-Dee and even Sin-Dee and Dinah. Overall, this film was a unique approach to representation and introduced a marginalized community to the big screen in a tasteful and artistic manner.

References

McLaren, Jackson Taylor, et al. “Recognize Me!: An Analysis of Transgender Media Representation.” Communication Quarterly, vol. 69, no. 2, Mar. 2021, pp. 172–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2021.1901759.

Green, McKinley. “Tangerine.” Queer Studies in Media & Pop Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 119+. Gale Academic OneFile, dx.doi.org/10.1386/qsmpc.1.1.119_5. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.

Murphy, Makado. “Sean Baker Talks ‘Tangerine,’ and Making a Movie With an iPhone.” New York Times, 5 July 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/movies/sean-baker-talks tangerine-and-making-a-movie-with-an-iphone.html.