Koki Ebata

Transgender Trouble

Koki Ebata, Takeo Urakami

In Japan, transvestites, transgender people, and those with Gender Identity Disorder are treated as outcasts, used for entertainment, and are regularly shown in appalling stereotypes on television and in the media. Their reality in fact represents a vast and not easily definable range of experiences and existences. The director of this documentary, herself transgender, focuses her camera's gaze specifically on the performers in a 'New Half' (Shemale) cabaret show in Tokyo.