The Danish Girl

Director: Tom Hooper. Author (novel): David Ebershoff. UK release date: 1 January 2016 The Danish Girl features a story of trans woman Lilly Elbe and partner Gerda Wegener, and with its worldwide distribution I (a trans guy from Birmingham) went along to watch it in my local cinema. Being trans has rather a special relationship with the visual – with being seen and appearing in the world. The many trans stories out there come in an array of formats such as paperbacks, broadsheets and tabloid newspapers, magazines, television series, documentaries and feature films. Most of these routinely feature the trans subject in transition, in journey as it were – going away from one ‘thing’ and becoming ‘something else’. This aspect of trans life really lends itself to storytelling – trans is a road movie but without the actual road. Within many of these trans stories there are also what I would …