Harmony Santana Triumphs In Gun Hill Road
Filed By Dr. Jillian T. Weiss | August 06, 2011 12:00 PM
http://www.bilerico.com/2011/08/harmony_santana_triumphs_in_gun_hill_road.php (http://www.bilerico.com/2011/08/harmony_santana_triumphs_in_gun_hill_road.php)
"Gun Hill Road" opened last night in New York City and Los Angeles, and the trailer didn't lie: this movie is the compelling and realistic story of a transsexual teen in a complex Latino family, and it portrays the realities of early transition and familial gender politics with an insight rarely achieved in film. It's playing until August 11, and if you're in New York or LA, I strongly recommend you get yourself to the theater.
What makes this film particularly savory is its combination of gritty realism and the ambiguity that pervades reality. It's the story of Vanessa (Harmony Santana), a Latino teenager realizing herself as a transsexual girl in a multi-ethnic Bronx neighborhood where machismo reigns. Her homophobic father Enrique (Esai Morales), released from prison, expects to find his son Michael, now in the furtive process of becoming Vanessa, little understanding that Michael is not the little boy he left. Her mother Angela (Judy Reyes) understands that Michael is changing, though her comprehension is unspoken and ambiguous, and loves her none the less. Vanessa herself is engaged in the joyful and torturous process of self-revelation and understanding what it means to be a young transsexual in the Bronx.