Some will no doubt struggle to find a clear direction in Preciado’s unconventional artistic maze of literature and lived experience. But for those willing to stroll the perfectly sculptured hedges of Preciado’s sun-lit labyrinth of stories, there are countless treasures to behold. Orlando, My Political Biography will be released in UK cinemas on July 5.
Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” is an essential masterpiece of queer literature. Alongside the likes of ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit‘ by Jeanette Winterson, ‘Giovanni’s Room’ by James Baldwin, ‘Maurice’ by E.M Forster and ‘Rubyfruit Jungle’ by Rita Mae Brown, to name just a few, ‘Orlando’ continues to find new audiences, as it both informs and adapts to the world surrounding it.
In 1992, Sally Potter brought Woolf’s ‘Orlando’ to the big screen, where Tilda Swinton stole the show in what can only be described as a bohemian theatrical treat that defied and joyously broke a series of unwritten rules, much as its antagonist did. Based on Woolf’s love of Rita Sackville-West, a writer and fellow member of the Bloomsbury set, Orlando changes sex from male to female, holding many lives over 400 years. Here, English history is satirised and explored through a delightfully queer lens.
Paul B. Preciado’s Orlando, My Political Biography not only celebrates the vital place ‘Orlando’ holds in non-binary and trans community history and art but also takes Woolf’s novel as its core text, adding layers of lived experience through a diverse ensemble of performers.
For Preciado, Woolf’s “Orlando” is a biography, a manifesto and an artistic line in the sand; it is political, personal and playful, a literary chameleon that joyfully changes its colours and sticks two fingers up at the heteronormative and binary world surrounding it. At the same time, for the ensemble, “Orlando” is a prelude and a postlude to their own stories. The resulting picture is a colourful, bold and brilliant exploration of non-binary and trans experiences and a love letter to a literary giant and the eternal character she created from her own love.
“For me, all the Orlandos are non-binary. They are everything all at once, both boys and girls and none of any of it. We had to be careful that the film didn’t binarise Virginia Woolf by starting, as a reflex, from women’s literature, for example, or the obsession to show the sex change. What interests me in the film is taking a snapshot of a world in epistemological transition, of the passage from a binary and patriarchal epistemology to another way of thinking about subjectivity, the body, and love”.
Paul B. Preciado
In the landscape of modern cinema, it’s rare for an indie film like Orlando, My Political Biography, to make it through the maze of film funding, production and distribution. But here it is, in all its unconstrained and uninhibited beauty, celebrating literature, diversity, fluidity and difference through genre-defying performance and art.
Some will no doubt struggle to find a clear direction in Preciado’s unconventional artistic maze of literature and lived experience. But for those willing to stroll the perfectly sculptured hedges of Preciado’s sun-lit labyrinth of stories, there are countless treasures to behold.
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