FILMS WE LIKE PRESENTS
ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
BY PAUL B. PRECIADO
WINNER
SPECIAL JURY AWARD
BERLINALE
For Immediate Release – Films We Like has acquired the Canadian rights to the acclaimed Orlando, My Political Biography, the debut film by Paul B. Preciado, which won the Special Jury Award this year at the Berlin International Film Festival where it had its world premiere. Orlando, My Political Biography offers a cinematic response to Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel of the same name, and casts 26 trans and non-binary actors of different generations to inhabit Woolf’s beloved character.
Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” tells the story of a young man who grows up to become a 36-year-old woman. Almost a century after its publication, Paul B. Preciado speaks to Virginia Woolf to tell her that her fictional character has become a reality. The transition of Orlando’s body now lies at the root of all non-binary bodies and there are Orlandos all over the world. Through the authentic voices of other young bodies undergoing metamorphosis, Preciado retraces the stages of his personal transformation through a poetic journey in which life, writing, theory and image merge freely in the search for truth. Every Orlando, he says, is a transgender person who is risking his, her or their life on a daily basis as they find themselves forced to confront government laws, history and psychiatry, as well as traditional notions of the family and the power of multinational pharmaceutical companies. But if “male” and “female” are ultimately political and social fictions, Orlando, My Political Biography shows us that change is no longer just about gender, but also about poetry, love and skin colour.
Press kit + trailer: TBA
Media Contact: Mercy Lam mercy@filmswelike.com
ABOUT FILMS WE LIKE
Founded by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann (Grass, Comic Book Confidential, Carmine Street Guitars) Films We Like is a boutique distributor of documentary, independent, and international films in Canada. Recent releases include Geographies of Solitude, Twice Colonized, The Five Devils and Academy Award winning feature Drive My Car.