ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY (ORLANDO, MA BIOGRAPHIE POLITIQUE) Documentary

Philosophically probing and brimming with delight, writer/intellectual Paul Preciado’s directorial debut composes a letter to Virginia Woolf, concerning her nearly 100-year-old novel “Orlando: A Biography.” In it, an aristocrat changes gender while sleeping and awakes as a woman who then traverses centuries. Preciado convenes 26 trans and non-binary people, between the ages of eight and 70, to join him in reciting, reenacting, transposing and challenging the celebrated text. Each embodies the literary character Orlando, while presenting an array of personal anecdotes and varying relationships to the novel. The differences and complexities contained in each Orlando shape a manifold and beautiful image of transness, one that is both broadening and unifying, devastating and joyful. Winner of the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival, ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY is an essential contribution to the queer canon, obliterating binaries, in both form and content. –Malin Kan