Tangerine

Directed by Sean Baker
Starring Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, Mya Taylor, Karren Karagulian, Mickey O’Hagan, James Ransone, Alla Tumanian

In a unanimous selection by the Storyhouse Cinema team, this month’s Storyhouse Gems screening brings us the gloriously queer alternative Christmas tale, Tangerine. This rip-roaring odyssey, loaded with dry-wit and foul-mouthed comedy, follows the lives and loves of a couple of transgender sex workers through the various subcultures of Los Angeles at Christmastime.

On Christmas Eve, a newly sober Sin-Dee Rella and her BFF Alexandra catch up over a glazed brunch at a Hollywood donut shop. When Sin-Dee comes to the realisation that her pimp boyfriend Chester hasn’t remained faithful during her 28-day stint in rehab, the two working girls tear through the sun-kissed streets of Tinseltown in search for the pimp who broke her heart.

Sean Baker, who would go on to direct bigger-budget independent features The Florida Project (2017) and Red Rocket (2021), became a breakout hit in 2015 when his micro-budget comedy-drama Tangerine premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Famously shot on three iPhone 5S smartphones, Tangerine shattered conventions in filmmaking and taught young, burgeoning indie filmmakers that creativity has no bounds.

Sean Baker’s film also bucked trends by casting two openly transgender performers, Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, to portray the protagonists of his movie instead of perpetuating the hiring of cis actors in transgender roles, such as that of Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club just a year earlier.