‘Framing Agnes’ Review: Transition, Center Stage
nytimes.comIn the 1960s, a sociologist, Harold Garfinkel, and a surgeon, Robert Stoller, led a clinic for the study of gender at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The clinic performed some of the first gender confirmation surgeries that were available to intersex or transgender people in the United States, and as part of the team’s medical research, Garfinkel interviewed the patients.
The documentary “Framing Agnes” uses these patient interviews to reflect upon the history of transgender people. The director Chase Joynt reimagines Garfinkel’s interviews as black-and-white talk show segments, recruiting transgender actors to perform scenes from the archived transcripts.
The rest of the film consists of colorful talking-head interviews with the actors, as well as researchers who have studied the archives in the present day.
