TRIBECA FILM FEST: Alexis Arquette's Family Film

Alexis Arquette flanked by her film's director Matthew Barbato and producer Nikki Parrott; and at the Dirt TV premiere earlier this year with his brother David and sister Patricia.

Yesterday was a newsworthy day for transgender Americans. Mike Penner, a sports writer for the L.A. Times announced he's taking a leave of absence, only to come back in a few weeks as Christine Daniels. Read Penner's awesome editorial. It's a very cool, brave and eloquent statement by another amazing individual being true to themselves, in the face of a world who doesn't always get it. Congratulations, Christine! Hurry back!

Meanwhile, yesterday in NYC, on the first day of the Tribeca Film Festival, I saw one of festival's first offerings, a documentary about transgender actor/performer/party girl Alexis Arquette. The film is Alexis Arquette: She's My Brother, and chronicles Arquette's journey over the last few years to transition from male to female. Arquette, an indie film actor and sibling to Rosanna, Patricia, David and Richmond, was for yearsknown around L.A. as a party fixture, a drag queen, a club performer in addition to starring in films like Pulp Fiction, Grief, Wigstock, The Wedding Singer, I Think I Do and Last Exit to Brooklyn. And while, back then, Alexis was always an outspoken, openly gay actor, most people weren't aware that he always knew he was truly more female than male. As Arquette herself put it today at a post-screening press conference, "I was out of the closet [as gay], but I was still in the closet, too."

Lots more Alexis and film dish after the jump!

Alexis and the film's crew answer questions at a post-screening Q&A.

"She's My Brother" features Arquette in pretty much every frame, as she works through the decision to transition, facing the issues that come with it, and delivering personal diary-entry-like monologues, including lots of scenes in which she's driving around L.A. (en route to his therapist, to the plastic surgeon, to meet friends) talking to herself and the camera. "Well, it is Los Angeles," cracked Arquette when asked why so much of the film involved her driving around. "And I didn't want to further the idea that transgender people are all streetwalkers. We have cars!"

Of course, some of the coolest moments in the film show old Arquette home movies, and Alexis as an androgynous teenager. Alexis claims that her adolescent male years were when she felt most at home in a male body. It was the 1980s, Boy George was famous, New Wave music was huge and boys could sport eye make-up and longer hair and work a gender-bendy vibe without much scrutiny. And yep, in the old footage, you'll see a pouty 13-year-old male Alexis who's seem quite happy as he poses and preens bombsell-style.

You'll also see a home video of an Arquette family Christmas circa 1987. All the siblings are young and cute (except Rosanna who's off making movies; she's represented by a Desperately Seeking Susan poster). The kids open their presents and Patricia gets a Gaultier outfit, shaggy young David gets colored pencils, and Alexis gets a cool Eastern theater mask. It's a sweet moment.

The other Arquettes also show up briefly in the film in older footage, but don't turn up to offer their present-day take on Alexis' transition. "Initially, they all said they'd go on camera," Alexis said of her siblings. "David and Courtney [Cox, Alexis' sister-in-law] even considered producing this film... But they were all afraid they'd end up saying the wrong thing and hurting me. They were concerned for my safety." Still, Alexis is the first to fess up that having a famous last name helped get this movie made. "People are interested in me because of my family. So if I can use that interest to garner attention to this subject, then I'm happy to."

The Arquettes: (from left) Thomas Jane & wife Patricia Arquette, Rosanna, Alexis, brother Richmond Arquette and David, with wife Courtney Cox.

Still, there are gaps in the film's narrative. Mainly due to the fact that apparently, well into filming, Alexis steps back and decides she wants to end her participation in the project. And she does, right as she heads off to film a season of VH1's The Surreal Life. Alexis, does return to talk to the fillmmakers, but she ultimately refuses to address in the film (or likewise, at the post-screening press conference) whether or not she eventually went through with the sex reassignment surgery, which much of the film is structured to build up to. Granted, the real questions of whether a transgender person has had such surgery is irrelevant to how they choose to present themselves gender-wise, but it does bring the story the the film has been telling to an anti-climactic end if you're a stickler for details. But hey, sometimes life is foggy like that.

The film also features fun appearances by drag perfomer Jackie Beat (a long-time pal of Alexis), Rosanne Barr, Arquette's family and dishy gay L.A. friends (whom Arquette fusses with after discovering they've been telling tales on the Arquettes to tabloid magazines!), which spice it up. And there's an unresolved romantic relationship with a young skater dude, Kevin. Do he and Alexis live happily ever after? Who knows?

Unofficially, I heard that this film originally came to life as a TV series for A&E, which was to follow Arquette's complete transition from male to female. That must have gotten stymied when Alexis herself decided to pull out of the project. The film's production notes explain it this way: "It's perhaps understandable to see why Alexis's attitude to the film she had initially pursused so enthusiastically might have changed. Shortly after filming began, she began a relationship with Kevin, a 22-year-old musician; the two were soon inseparable. As her transition became a reality, she had to juggle not only a new relationship, but a whole new body, enough to make anyone anxious, even without the added pressure of having a camera crew following their every move."

So, yep; the film ends up as wild and conflicted as Arquette herself. Still, it's a enticing portrait of someone facing some life-altering decisions and choices head on, set against a loopy, clubby Hollywood backdrop. Real life rarely is that cut and dry anyway.

Scenes from 2004: Alexis would appear at events as both female and male. Left, with Rosanna and Patricia, and right, that same year, out with David.

And, facing the flashbulbs at the Tribeca Film Fest yesterday.