“Billy’s story lets us watch one woman’s bold solutions to gaining a certain amount of recognition in what was largely a man’s world.” – Diane Middlebrook (Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton)
Since its publication in 1998, these words have diminished and dismissed Billy Tipton’s life and gender identity as a mere career choice. Diane Middlebrook may not have intended this, but her writing fed the media storm after Billy’s death in 1989. Words carry unlimited power; they influence public opinion and shape accepted, ongoing narratives. Therefore, these words intentionally or unintentionally reinforced the media narrative of deceit and lies following Billy’s death, as uncovered and explored in No Ordinary Man.
Billy Tipton was born in Oklahoma in 1914 and had a God-given talent for music from a young age. His passion for the piano and saxophone eventually led him into the world of Jazz, where he spent his teenage years touring clubs and dance halls. By the mid-1930s, Billy would earn praise and adoration as he joined the Western Swingbillies, followed by several recorded sessions for local radio in the 1940s. By the 50s, Billy was a self-funded recording artist and had been offered a prestigious position in Liberace’s house band. However, Billy declined the offer and walked away from fame, choosing to settle down with a nightclub dancer named Tilly.
Throughout their loving relationship, Tilly and Billy would adopt three boys before their relationship ended in 1977. But, as Billy died of an untreated ulcer in 1989, with his son, Billy Jr, at his side, a media storm was about to break.
On arrival at his home, paramedics discovered that Billy’s birth gender was female. A media machine immediately dismissed and questioned Billy’s life as a man, using damaging slogans such as ‘The Jazzy Gender Bender’. However, the complexity of his story was only heightened by some family members stating that they were unaware of Billy’s birth gender until his death. As a media circus erupted, some of his family and friends would appear on TV chat shows where tabloid curiosity dovetailed with blatant transphobia. The 90s media machine would become obsessed with lurid conversations around Billy’s genitals, sex life and deception, further ostracising trans people and his loving sons.
Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt’s documentary, No Ordinary Man, finally shares Billy’s story with the love and respect he so deserved. Chin-Yee and Joynt’s engaging, informative, and bold exploration of Tipton’s life is both creative and empowering, told through a group of trans actors auditioning for a film based on Billy’s life. Unlike most biopics, No Ordinary Man transcends the usual biographical beats as performance, reflection, and analysis combine to create a unique journey into the past and present. Tipton’s life and legacy are paired with contemporary discussions on trans equality and visibility, creating a historical and contemporary documentary.
After premiering at Sundance 2022, Chase Joynt’s documentary, Framing Agnes, explores long-lost recordings of case studies involving transgender clients at the University of California between the 1950s and ’60s. Agnes, a patient at the Harold Garfinkel gender clinic, is considered a figurehead in trans history.
Her story was once thought to be the only surviving case study from the clinic until further discoveries in 2017. Agnes’ story is groundbreaking because the UCLA archive material is rare, making it an erased slice of LGBTQ+ history. This material’s importance places a responsibility on any filmmaker to ensure the film reflects the significance of Agnes’ journey. However, while Framing Agnes works in parts, it fails to fully explore the source material’s historical significance.
The film uses a hybrid storytelling format, with contemporary transgender actors bringing six stories to life from available case studies. Here, the filmmaking style echoes No Ordinary Man; however, Joynt’s solo documentary never quite matches the stride of his previous film with Aisling Chin-Lee. Like No Ordinary Man, the film jumps between past and present, with Joynt interviewing the actors about the histories of the lives they reenact. Meanwhile, Jules Gill-Peterson, a professor of transgender history at Johns Hopkins University, offers a scholarly analysis accompanied by archive footage and interviews.
While this storytelling choice worked well in No Ordinary Man, something feels missing in Framing Agnes, mainly because of its short runtime and multiple stories. Still, the reenactments are undeniably powerful. These scenes stand out for their stylistic use of a 4:3 aspect ratio and black-and-white film to portray historical events. Zackary Drucker plays Agnes, while Angelica Ross and Jen Richards portray Georgia and Barbara. Meanwhile, Max Wolf Valerio, Silas Howard, and Stephen Ira bring to life the stories of three trans men. These stories are wrapped in emotion as we witness the discrimination faced by trans men and women while allowing the silenced voices of the past to resonate with their present-day performers.
While relevant and fascinating, the academic discussion occasionally reads more like a university lecture. Here, Jules Gill-Peterson’s analysis feels wholly cut off from the performers and their emotional journey. This creates a void between the filmed performance and the more standard documentary format. There is no doubt that Gill-Peterson’s analysis helps place some aspects of the transcripts in context and provides an in-depth historical background. Yet I can’t help but feel that her work needed to dovetail more with the performance pieces at the film’s heart.
There are also problems when Joynt and the actors return to their own contemporary identities and discuss the importance of making Framing Agnes and the content of the recorded transcripts. Again, the issue of breaking up the continuity and taking us out of the script’s reality persists, often abruptly cutting away from an emotionally heavy moment to some unneeded behind-the-scenes material. The result is a somewhat confused and, at times, unfocused documentary that, while fascinating, never quite matches No Ordinary Man’s power.
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