When Sean Baker decided he wanted to make a film about L.A.’s transgender community, he began hanging around the red light area in West Hollywood. He befriended trans woman Mya Taylor at the LGBT Centre there, who, despite never having acted before, ended up the star of Baker’s film, alongside her friend and fellow trans woman, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez. Tangerine isn’t the real life story of these two women but it reflects their experiences. A breakout hit from this year’s Sundance, it’s also a complete riot.
Taylor plays Alexandra, a sex worker trying to rein in her fellow trans street worker and friend Sin Dee [Kiki Rodriguez] who gets out of jail on Christmas Eve only to discover her boyfriend-come-pimp has been cheating on her with a “fish” (or non-trans female).
The film follows the two characters around sunny Santa Monica Boulevard, picking up clients, kidnapping said “white fish” and finally, finding out something about their lives lived on the streets.
This exclusive clip shows Sin Dee in full flow and Alexandra doing her BFF’s duty of listening to it all. Having shot the film entirely on three iPhone 5C Baker decided against desaturating the film. He’s kept it sunny side up to better express the colourfulness of its two main characters.
Taylor and Kiki Rodriguez’s naturalistic performances have prompted early Oscar buzz. Tangerine‘s producers, the Duplass brothers (who made their name with mumblecore movies) are campaigning to make the two women contenders in the best and supporting actress categories respectively.
If either get nominated, it would be a first. The Academy Awards has not recognised a trans actor or actress yet despite wins for a number of cisgender actors playing trans roles.