ITHACA, NY—The Out of the Closet and onto the Screen film series at
Ithaca College will feature an award-winning documentary on Robert
Eads—a female-to-male transsexual and self-described "hillbilly" who
developed ovarian cancer—on Thursday, April 3, at 7 p.m. in Textor
102. Held in conjunction with National LGBT Health Awareness Week, the
screening of "Southern Comfort" is free and open to the public.
Living in the back hills of Georgia, Eads cut a striking figure:
sharp-tongued, bearded, with tobacco pipe in hand, he passed as a male
so well that the local Ku Klux Klan tried to recruit him as a member.
But when Eads was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, he was turned away by
more than two dozen doctors who feared that taking on a transgender
patient would harm their practice.
"Southern Comfort" documents the final year of Eads's life, during
which time he falls in love with Lola, a male-to-female transsexual,
and makes his last appearance at the Southern Comfort Conference in
Atlanta, the nation's preeminent transgender gathering. A rare blend
of humor, romance and tragedy, the film is an intimate trans-to-trans
love story, set against a disturbing tale of gender bias. "Southern
Comfort" won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film
Festival, First Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival and
Special Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Out of the Closet and onto the Screen film series is sponsored by
the Ithaca College Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
(LGBT) Education, Outreach, and Services. For more information, contact
Lisa Maurer, LGBT Center coordinator,
at (607) 274-7394 or Dave Maley
Office: (607) 274-1440
more info
