"Someone once asked me: why don't you write your biography," filmmaker Paul B. Preciado says at the start of the trailer for his documentary Orlando, My Political Biography. "Because fucking Virginia Woolf wrote my biography in 1928."
Taking Virginia Woolf’s 1928 novel Orlando: A Biography as its source material, Preciado tells the story of 25 trans and nonbinary people of all ages.
Woolf's radical novel told the story of a gender fluid eponymous hero/heroine who experiences a physical metamorphosis over three centuries.
"The contemporary world is full of Orlandos who are changing the course of history," Preciado continues. The filmmaker uses the novel as a jumping off point to explore its relevance today in a culture fraught with anti-trans ideology and an ongoing battle for trans people's human rights.
The documentary, which is equal parts personal essay, historical analysis, and social manifesto, took home four prizes at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival.
Orlando, My Political Biography opens in cinemas in Nov. 2023.
