Transfixed (Alon Kol). 75 minutes. Opens Friday (April 15). See Listing. Rating: NNN
Martine Stonehouse is best known as the trans activist who won the Toronto Pride Award in 2012, honouring her work in urging the Ontario government to fund gender-affirming surgeries.
But Alon Kol’s doc tracks her more personal struggle to marry her partner, John, who loves her deeply but won’t agree to wed until they can have sex. His prerequisite for that is that she “get a vagina.”
That’s not so easy given that she’s overweight and pre-diabetic, which significantly increases the risk of surgery. When a Canadian doctor balks at performing it, she’s forced to go to the U.S. for the procedure.
The couple face this and other obstacles in their quest, which is compelling enough, but the fact that both live with Asperger’s syndrome adds a key element to the film. At first you feel like John is pushing Martine to get the bottom surgery – maybe even bullying her. But Martine’s been clear that complicated communication is an aspect of Asperger’s syndrome.
Those with Asperger’s may have a hard time reading other people, but just as important is the challenge for the rest of us to learn how to read John.
