Dressed in Blue

Antonio Gimenez-Rico's 1983 documentary is about six transgender women living in post-Franco Spain. They tell their own lives on camera: breaking from family, the work they did to survive, police pressure and the near impossibility of access to medical care. The structure is hybrid. Alongside the interviews there are reconstructed scenes in which the women play themselves. That choice blurs the boundary of the documentary, and it is sometimes unclear how much of what is told has been directed. For its moment the film counts as a first. Spain had only just emerged from dictatorship and nothing had described trans lives at this length or in this tone. Seen now, some of its language is dated, but the women's own words remain the strongest and most lasting part. Who it's for: those interested in LGBT history and in Spain's transition period. Who it's not for: viewers expecting language that meets today's standards of representation; the narration and some scenes carry the gaze of their time.