Paul B. Preciado. Orlando. My Political Biography
Presentation by Roberta Marrero
Free, until full capacity is reached
This activity presents a screening of the feature-length documentary Orlando, mi biografía política (Orlando. My Political Biography, 2023), by the philosopher and writer Paul B. Preciado, and features an intervention, in the second session, by the artist, writer and poet Roberta Marrero, the author of El bebé verde: infancia, transexualidad y héroes del pop (Lunwerg Editores, 2016) and Todo era por ser fuego. Poemas de chulos, trans y travestis (Continta me tienes, 2022).
Virginia Woolf published Orlando. A Biography in 1928, a novel in which the main character changes sex halfway through the story. A century later, Paul B. Preciado, a philosopher and trans activist, decided to write a letter to Woolf telling her that Orlando had not only become a reality but that everyone was becoming “Orlando-esque”. At the same time, Preciado wonders about contemporary Orlandos and thus holds a casting: twenty-seven different people, all trans and non-binary and ranging from eight to seventy years of age, play Woolf’s character as they narrate their own lives, established with a series of mid-twentieth-century archives that evoke real historical events in the struggle for transgender recognition and visibility. The film competed in the Encounters section, won the Teddy Award and was nominated for the Documentary Award at Berlinale 2023.
The screening engages in a dialogue with Cabello/Carceller’s video installation Una voz para Erauso. Epílogo para un tiempo trans (A Voice for Erauso. Epilogue for a Trans Time, 2022).
Credits
Paul B. Preciado. Orlando, mi biografía política(Orlando. My Political Biography)
France, 2023, original version in French and Spanish with Spanish subtitles, DA, 98’
