The Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (aGLIFF) presents this acclaimed documentary that focuses on the same news story that forms the basis of the soon-to-be-released movie Boys Don’t Cry. The Brandon Teena Story follows the saga of the transgendered Brandon, a girl who passed herself off as a boy and died as a result of the deep hatreds aroused by her deception. All Brandon’s girlfriends found him to be the most considerate lover and partner they had ever had, and for a while he managed to be accepted as one of the guys. But then fear and hatred erupt into rape and murder, as 21-year-old Brandon died in 1993 in rural Nebraska. This documentary interviews Brandon’s former girlfriends and others who knew him, in addition to talking with his two killers, who are now serving life sentences. The distanced dispassion in the killers’ explanations, the loving warmth of his friends’ recollections, and the agonized words of Brandon, himself, in his letters and legal testimony, all contribute to making this an endlessly fascinating and disquieting movie. It should be required viewing along with the upcoming (arriving in Austin on Nov. 19) Boys Don’t Cry.
This article appears in Carol Keeton Rylander.
