Orlando, My Political Biography

By

Paul B.Preciado

In 1928, Virginia Woolf wrote Orlando, the first novel in which the main character changes sex in the middle of the story. A century later, trans writer and activist Paul B. Preciado decides to send a film letter to Virginia Woolf: her Orlando has come out of her fiction and is living a life she could have never imagined. Preciado organises a casting and gathers 26 contemporary trans and non-binary people, from 8 to 70 years old, who embody Orlando.

Festivals & Awards

Berlinale 2023 –  Special Jury Award Encounters Section,  Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film, Special Mention Berlinale Documentary Award Jury &  Tagesspiegel Reader’s Jury Prize for Best Encounters Film

Bildrausch Film Festival 2023 – Audience Award

Jerusalem Film Festival 2023 – Special Mention from the Chantal Akerman Prize jury

Jeonju International Film Festival 2023 – Special Jury Prize

Toronto Film Festival 2023 – Wavelenghts

IDFA 2023 – Best of fests

Reykjavík International Film Festival – Best Film of the ‘A Different Tomorrow’ Competition

Festival Do Rio 2023 – Best Documentary

Mar del Plata International Film Festival 2023 – Special Mention in the Altered States Competition

Cinema Eye Honors 2024 – Nominee for Outstanding Debut

Göteborg Film Festival 2024 – Visionaries

Trailer

Press

“Few movies this year have lived in my head as long and as happily as this one”
“A sharp (…) work of great political and personal conviction”
“Preciado’s superpower in this warm, generous movie is that while he speaks brilliantly to the cages of identity, he sees — and shares — a way out of them. He talks and listens, he exhorts and confesses. He insists on pleasure, speaks to happiness, invites laughter and opens worlds. Here, joy reigns supreme, and it is exhilarating.”

– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

 

“When it comes to courtroom scenes, the one in Orlando, My Political Biography is more deeply imagined and more thrillingly performed than any in the Cannes-winning hit Anatomy of a Fall.”
“It would require the stenographic skills of a court reporter to do justice to this essay-film”
“Preciado brings the concept [of transition] to life with some remarkable cinematic stagecraft”

– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

 

“Imaginative, vibrant essay-documentary”
“Cheekily unclassifiable”
“Sparklingly intelligent, Godard-puckish and moving, capable of deadpan wit and the most intimate swirl of ideas and emotions”
“Preciado’s creative construct opens us to a trans consciousness as vital as it is joyous, funny and necessarily artful. It’s obviously political too”

– Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times

 

“It’s one of the best trans documentaries in years”
“A film of many visual pleasures”
“Certainly one of the first to make the headiness of gender theory, well, fun on the big screen”

– Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire

 

“A stunning debut”

– Elaina Patton, NBC News

 

“Messy, radical and full of hope”

– Patrick Ryan, USA Today

Original title: Orlando, ma biographie politique

Production: Les Films du Poisson - 24 Images - Arte France

Nationality: France

Year of production: 2023

Running time: 98'

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