Posts in AFS Cinema
I will be playing the role of Orlando (My Political Biography)

Orlando, My Political Biography is a documentary-of-sorts, exploring Virginia Woolf’s Orlando through interviews with transgender folks and narration from Preciado in the form of a letter to Virginia Woolf. Each of the 26 subjects introduces themselves as “playing the role of Orlando,” Orlando becoming a stand-in for transgender subjectivity. As Preciado is Orlando, so is he, so is she, so are they. The title of the film is instructive: it is Preciado’s “political biography”–not an autobiography, but a tapestry of trans experiences united under the concept of Orlando.

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Central Park and Canal Zone: The Art of Sound Editing and Audiovisual Storytelling

Central Park (1989) and Canal Zone (1977), point especially to his knack for keen sound design and editing. Both restorations demonstrate Frederick Wiseman’s deliberate choices for aural transitions and building an immersive and rich soundscape that helps fill out the impressive scope of both projects.

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The Store and Law and Order: Making the Mundane Extraordinary

Frederick Wiseman's documentaries The Store and Law and Order highlight different stages of sociopolitical change, through plainly depicting his subjects with as little interpretive framework as possible.

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