'Gun Hill Road' shines with optimism and grit
By Donald Munro / The Fresno Bee
Thursday, Sep. 15, 2011 | 05:50 PM
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/15/2540087/gun-hill-road-shines-with-optimism.htmlOne worthwhile offering is Rashaad Ernesto Green's "Gun Hill Road," a tender drama about a transgender teen in the Bronx whose life is upended when his convict father returns from prison. (It screens 8 p.m. Sunday at the Tower Theatre. The selection is the festival's closing-night film and will be followed by an awards party.)
Michael (a first-rate Harmony Santana, who was undergoing her own gender transition during filming), leads a double life. He regularly slips away to local poetry slams dressed as a woman and as "Vanessa" experiments with the pre-operative options available to a transgendered individual, including illegal hormone pills and injections.
