Tangerine Limited Edition

After watching TANGERINE, the occasionally primal exploration of trans sex workers on the fringes of LA culture, I was torn. Sean Baker is hearlded as the film maker that gives reality back to film. He is far from this. Using arfice as much as the Iphones to construct a version of reality. What he does do, outside of skilled direction, is import a humanist eye to the people he is, put frankly, studying. Sin Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is fresh out of jail after 30 days. She has just learnt that her pimp boyfriend Chester (James Ransone) has been cheating on her while she was away. Her best friend, Alexandra (Mya Taylor) found out, told her and hoped that it would make her change. However it has now blow up in her face and Sin Dee is made. She wants to find him and teach him and his new lover a lesson. All on Christmas Eve .

I might not love TANGERINE. It has many flaws. But I do think the leads, Kitana and Mya, justify the price of this new release alone. In her explorative interview, titled Honest and Hilarious, Mya is just that. They spoke about how they worked with the writers to transform their roles and add life to their character. Both having experienced the industry and Taylor, exposing the multiple elements of its reality, so Baker and writing partner Chris Bergoch (also interviewed but saying far less) could extract. They make the films flaws bearable. The dull, overlong scenes. The poor camera work. The occasional mix of the surreal and the staid. Cerise Howard and Rohan Spong dont mention this mind. They seem to profess love and adoration to Baker. Talking up his work, which is actually less his work and much more the stars and cast (who they do acknowledge but not enough for me). I actually also enjoyed Karren Karagulian interview, for he has acted with Baker and seems to gel with his process. He manages a little definition that is lacking elsewhere. But this is the complaint I would have here. The interviews are too short, most lack real insight and feel a little rushed.

Finally Kat Ellinger. A great film theorist and voice in cinema theory. But I think she is being spread to thinly and it is often driven by desperation. Not her fault. This is the fault of those people producing these blu rays. Kat has been chosen here for one rather idotic reason. She was ‘working class’ and this seems to be defining her voice in rationalisng TANGERINE. By me saying rationalising, I mean her framing how she connects to it. Starting with how labels are attached (all derogatory) to the working class and then finishing, with comments on agency and empowerment, Kat delves into the work but, and there is always a but. I do not enjoy saying this, connecting across a range of Bakers films, his championing of the alternative economy is wrong. Baker profits from narrative stories. He is not championing but simply exploring a film subject. Baker (a rich white guy) is profiting from the very people he films. I grew up working class. I lived in and understand the working / alternative economy / Low income classes. I also understand how the left wing and academic classes blame all ills on 80s economics and withdrawn public investment in social services. This is economically naive and fails to get to the issues today. I and millions of others worked hard to rise up and still have a long way to go. But the rejection of education, welfare, sexual wellness and more, is not only due to the above but also due to deeper factors. Its akin to all ills being blamed on relgion and not, the people who often use this to cover their agendas. Often over rationalised by the aspirational and labelling classes, those in lower class groups are left to ponder, why am I being talked at…

Special Features 

• Audio commentary with Cerise Howard and Rohan Spong
• Merry F*cking Christmas: the making of Tangerine
• Staying Authentic: a new interview with Director Sean Baker
• Honest and Hilarious: a new interview with Actor Mya Taylor
• Legit Bruises: a new Interview with Actor Mickey O’Hagan
• The Magic Happens: a new interview with Actor Karren Karagulian
• Just Hold It In!: a new interview with Actor Josh Sussman
• We Make It Work: a new interview with Cinematographer Radium Cheung
• It Was Electric!: a new Interview with Writer Chris Bergoch
• Inside a Tangerine: a new interview with Producer Darren Dean
• To Be Real: Kat Ellinger on the Cinema of Sean Baker
• Tangerine Camera Test

Limited Edition Contents

• Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Caelin White at FEM Design
• 60 page book with new essays by Shaadi Devereaux, Caden Mark Gardner, Michelle Kisner and Jerome Reuter, an archive interview with Sean Baker and behind-the-scenes stills
• 6 collectors’ art cards