katrinaolson.ca - KO Review of Three to Infinity: Beyond Two Genders (FTFF 2016)

Posted on Friday, May 27, 2016 at 05:30 AM

KO Review of Three to Infinity: Beyond Two Genders (Fairy Tales Film Festival 2016)

Review by Katrina Olson-Mottahed x CalgaryMovies.com

A KO Review by Emily Mody

Three to Infinity: Beyond Two Genders directed by Lonny Shavelson is a full-length American documentary. This film explores the spectrum of gender possibilities in our society today. I consider myself to be a fairly open minded individual and I was shocked to find out how little I knew about the intricacies that some people define themselves by when discussing gender. This film is an extremely educational exploration into the issue of gender in our society. I enjoyed Three to Infinity in the same way that I enjoy learning about new things, which for me is a lot.

The film focused heavily on Sasha’s story, a teenager who is gender neutral. One day while Sasha was riding the bus they fell asleep and an individual approached them and proceeded to set their skirt on fire. Sasha received severe burns to their legs. They were hospitalized and had to have surgery to repair the damage. The whole community rallied behind Sasha as they recovered. Thinking back on the film, however, I just realized that there was no discussion of who the perpetrator of the crime was or if they were brought to justice. Perhaps it was thought to be dangerous to give this person any kind of exposure. Although Sasha’s was a beautiful story and an important one to be shared I found other aspects of the film infinitely more interesting.

There were a couple minutes of the film devoted to the story of three men, two of which were older white gentlemen who had defined themselves as gender neutral when they were young but had grown tired of the difficulty this had presented in their lives. Due to this they both decided to fully transition to being men in order to make their lives easier. There was also another man that was interviewed who had a similar experience except he was African American. He described his experience as exceptionally more complicated due to his race. He stated that life was hard enough being black, but to be black and gender neutral he couldn’t imagine the struggles he would face. Due to this he also fully transitioned to becoming a man. I found these portions of the film to be, without a doubt, the most interesting portions of the film and very little time was devoted to them. I could have watched an entire film just about these people and how they went through their lives.

All in all, I would recommend this film to anyone who is looking for a educational document on gender identity. I think this could be shown in any Women Studies class. This is truly the next wave of education for our society as we move to include more people in the spectrum of what is socially acceptable. Three to Infinity: Beyond Two Genders will be screening as a part of the 2016 Fairy Tales Film Festival on Wednesday, May 25, 2016 7:00 PM at the Plaza Theatre, Calgary, AB.

Calgary Showtimes: 18th Fairy Tales Film Festival 2016 >