Sarah Parlow

Adam, a white man in his late 30s, is visiting his Black ex-lover, Peter, who is dying of AIDS in a DC hospital. The year is 1993. Also in attendance is Cherie, a Black lesbian naval officer who is Peter’s best friend. The two listen sympathetically to Peter’s complaints about how his “Christian” family has abandoned him until a nurse arrives to give Peter medication. While waiting in the hospital cafeteria, Adam and Cherie, meeting that day for he first time, compare notes about the course of Peter’s illness. This leads them to a terrible discovery. Adam, in particular, is confronted with a choice that, while still in shock, he doesn’t know how to handle.

One Life to Blossom is a documentary film that follows the life of black transgender activist and entertainer Blossom C. Brown as she undergoes her dream of getting face feminization surgery all within a year before making headlines at the 2019 CNN LGBTQ Town Hall. Raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Blossom struggled with her identity and her health when she became infected with H.I.V. at seventeen years old, but that didn’t stop her from going after her dreams. She overcame racial and gender prejudices to become the first transgender woman to graduate from Mississippi University for Women. However, her dreams of becoming a nurse was unsuccessful when she was not accepted into nursing school after applying six times. However, Blossom chose to not give up on her dream.

A razor-sharp tongue is a great asset, but what happens when the people you cut are those closest to you? Razor Tongue deftly navigates the calling out--and the being called out. Whether sitting through a floundering Tinder date or a terrible job interview Belle calls out microaggressions and bad behaviour from men whenever she sees it. But when someone turns the tables on her in public, she begins to wonder about how effective public shaming actually is. There has been ample talk recently about the call-out culture, especially in LGBTQ2S+ communities, and Razor Tongue--a new web series from Rain Valdez of Transparent--cuts to the heart of the issue.