Culturally, the last year has been a transformative one for trans consciousness. There's been the public coming out of Caitlyn Jenner; the Golden Globe and Emmy Awards recognition of Transparent, the Amazon.com streaming series with Jeffrey Tambor transitioning into a woman with the support of his dysfunctional family; the Pentagon lifting the ban on military service by transgender people; and the White House hiring the openly transgender Raffi Freedman-Gurspan as policy advisor at the National Center for Transgender Equality. Carl(a), the transgender drama made in 2011, but just released on DVD by Ariztical Entertainment, is not a milestone like the above events, yet it raises two issues every transgender must reckon with: How far does one transition? and, How does one deal with hostility from both one's family and society at large? While hardly breaking new ground, Carl(a) is a potent study of a trans woman trying not to lose herself as she maps out her life journey and tries to overcome harsh obstacles to find her true self.
Carla (Joslyn DeFreece) is a pre-op transgender woman and live-cam sex worker complete with her own website, living in Brooklyn with several clients she entertains online. She is saving her money so she can pay for surgery to complete her transition. Her dream, besides becoming a "real" woman, is to work as a shoe designer. Her family disdains her, including a hostile brother, a shaming father, and her doubtful mother, none of whom will use her name or acknowledge she is now a woman. But her grandfather (Mark Margolis) supports Carla, and is trying to reconcile her with her parents. Her best friend is Cinnamon (Laverne Cox), a trash-talking street prostitute regularly beat up by her johns and high on drugs, but who also protects Carla from neighborhood thugs. One of her clients, Sam (Gregg Bello), a nerdy computer programmer, breaks the rules and asks Carla out on a date. Not only because of her job, but because of her poor previous relationships with men, Carla is reluctant to accept. She seeks Cinnamon's counsel, who advises, "It's tough enough for any of us to get a man interested, so you should go for it." Carla starts dating Sam, and they become a couple, as he seemingly loves her for who she is. Unexpectedly, she receives the funds she needs to pay for her surgery, but Sam doesn't want her to have the surgery, threatening to cut off their relationship if she does. Carla is faced with a heart-wrenching dilemma about her surgery: she either loses Sam or herself.
It must be said that only because Laverne Cox has become a star on Orange Is the New Black, the Netflix streaming TV series �" as well as becoming the first trans woman to grace the cover of Time magazine �" has Carl(a) seen the light of day. It had a brief theatrical run years ago before now arriving on DVD. The cover lists Laverne as the star, but she plays only a supporting role. But she has such magnetism and a vibrant presence in her few showy scenes that it is easy to see why she has become famous, and why Orange is not a flash in the pan.
Joslyn DeFreece, in a more laid-back interior performance, is just as good and talented, even without the benefit of the scene-stealing melodrama conferred upon Laverne. Their acting soars in this micro-budget indie that is a bit rough on the edges, even if we stretch the definition of cinema verite. To be honest, there is nothing new here that hasn't been showcased more sophisticatedly on Transparent . But there is a genuine honesty, a warts-and-all depiction of trans life in sketchy urban areas, especially as Carla is trying to rise above her working-class roots and make a new life for herself, a theme we don't often see in LGBT cinema. Carla wants to be accepted by others on her terms, and recognizes the heavy price she might pay for those choices. The audience will wish her well.