Directed by Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt • 2020 • Canada
Starring Billy Tipton, Susan Stryker, Kate Bornstein
American jazz musician Billy Tipton developed a reputable touring and recording career in the mid-twentieth century, along with his band the Billy Tipton Trio. After his death in the late 1980s, it was revealed that Tipton had been assigned female at birth, and his life was swiftly reframed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. The genre-defying documentary NO ORDINARY MAN seeks to correct that misrepresentation by collaborating with trans artists. As they collectively celebrate Tipton’s story as a musician living his life on his own terms, they paint a vivid portrait of a trans culture hero. NO ORDINARY MAN features leading voices and breakout stars in the trans community, including Marquise Vilsón, Scott Turner Schofield, Susan Stryker, C. Riley Snorton, and Thomas Page McBee.
Up Next in Masc
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Stafford’s Story
Directed by Susan Muska • 1992 • United States
Stafford recounts a memorable encounter at a sex club.
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Ifé
Directed by H. Lenn Keller • 1993 • United States
This stylized short, both sex-positive and slick, follows a day in the life of a Black French lesbian in San Francisco. Ifé loves women but vows never to fall in love. As she extols the beauty of women in San Francisco, she slowly cruises the cit...
