Tangerine Reflection
The film Tangerine is a “video diary” of a transgender hooker finding his boyfriend and pimp who have been cheating on her. The story portraits a distinctive group of LGBT sex workers, buried in the corner of Hollywood. The director claims that friendship, trust and understanding are universal claims for any kind of people, throughout the film.
Tangerine begins with a foreign issue to me, prostitutes, sex and gender roles. It first drew me in by the striking color, yellow and tangerine that immersed the road. Sin-Dee, full of intense emotions, marches like a soldier on the sidewalks of LA. When she yells at people who might give her a clue or hinder her, I gradually tasted her earnest love, frustration and even shame. Contrasts can be witnessed anywhere in the film. Also as a transgender sex worker, Alexandria seems more spineless than Sin-Dee, trying to avoid direct “drama”. However, her confident, even graceful demeanor when singing in the bar and her fury when Dinah teases her about paying to sing show her passion and belief of her holy singer dream. As for the definition of loyalty, the absurd explanation of Chester exhibits his hypocrisy, comparing to the natural reactions of Sin-Dee. In the end of the film, Alexandria gives her wig to Sin-Dee, when Sin-Dee is poured by urine. The warmth between two fragile souls lit a faint light in this wide yet helpless world.
Another interesting thing about this film is the equipment that the director used. This wide-screen film is shot by an iphone 5s and edited by a 8 dollars software, FiLMiC Pro. This filming experience reminds me of the in-class reading about how technology and digital media bring about new opportunities. As long as one wants to express his or her idea, technical artifacts and digital media help disseminate it as tools and mediums. After premiered at 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Tangerine has inspired numerous viewers to think about the gender roles issue and LGBT subcultures. It serves as an example of how a technical product involves with culture, art and social problems in the digital era we lived in.
In all, Tangerine forces the viewers to explore an easily-overlooked corner of the world. The development of the technology and the popularization of the digital equipment allow the director to express his voice. The group of LGBT, willing to live like normal people, need love and respect just like you and me.
