Orlando, Desire Lines: In Search of a t4t Documentary Practice.

As a response to the increasingly violent backlash against trans rights, trans cinema must look beyond representation and seek to foster community solidarity and care. New trans cinematic works must resist conventional modes of representation and instead provide a form of care and validation to trans audiences. This paper focuses on recent trans documentaries "Orlando, My Political Biography" (Paul Preciado, 2023) and "Desire Lines" (Jules Rosskam, 2024) which not only depict trans experiences but also challenge traditional filmmaking techniques to foster a t4t (trans-for-trans) ethos. This ethos rejects stealth ways of looking, in which one assimilates seamlessly into cisgender society post-transition. Instead, Orlando and Desire Lines continually disrupt the binary gaze by embracing a process-oriented filmmaking style that reminds the audience the image, like gender, is constructed. Such work not only has the potential to change the socio-political landscape, it radically prioritizes supporting trans lives over instructing cisgender viewers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]