Extrait du blog de Cerise Howard
Article extrait du blog de Cerise Howard suite à la projection du 19th Melbourner Queer Festival – March 09
But what would a MQFF be without at least one really angry, polemical genderqueer doco? L’Ordre des Mots (Binding Words,Cynthia Arra & Melissa Arra, 2007) fit that bill perfectly, introducing six highly articulate French intersex/genderfuck activists who each relate to camera the battles they have fought – are still fighting – with themselves, with the greatersociety around them, with the widespread prevalence of reductionist binary thinking, with conservative elements within academia and psychiatry, as well as within French law, which, on the evidence presented in this film, is rather more grotesquely behind the
times than I would remotely have expected. We also get to see them in action, successfully disrupting a conference where a famed academic transsexuality-denialist is attempting to hold court. Stirring stuff !
By Senses of Cinema
About Binding Words
Directed by Cynthia Arra & Mélissa Arra
Documentary / 2007 / France / 75’ / 4:3
The film aims to give Trans’ people whose quest for gender identity is fettered by established norms a chance to voice their tribulation. Their means of resistance consist of searching for tools of knowledge, for corporealities, sexualities and alternative identities to those of the conventional schemas. Far from the usual treatment of Trans issues, this film, through the choice of its portrait subjects – all contemporary actors and precursors of the Trans’and Intersex movement in France – addresses the gender identity issues head-on by questioning our often unchallenged societal norms and analyzing the nature of the oppression and repression faced by the Trans’ and Intersex community.
With Maud-Yeuse Thomas, Tom Reucher, Vincent Avrons, Vincent He-Say, Carine Boeuf and Vincent Guillot.
directors Cynthia Arra & Mélissa Arra
self-produced Cynthia Arra & Mélissa Arra
camera operators Cynthia Arra & Mélissa Arra
editing Cynthia Arra, Mélissa Arra & Justine Triet
music during crédits “Manifeste”, original soundtrack of the film “Exils” (Exiles) by Tony Gatlif
mix Christophe Doucet-Mimoun
color grading Sydney Teggbo & Sandra Sauron – toggle productions
english subtitles Paul Belle, Steve Arra & Marie-Hélène Bourcier
trailer Clémentine March
website Vincent He-Say
support for festival screening Digital Beta or DVD in French or in French with English subtitles