Woods Hole Film Festival Executive Director Judy Laster, Director Michelle Le Brun and SOUTHERN COMFORT director Kate Davis hooking up at the Mass Film Office Sundance party. Photo courtesy Judy Laster.

"This has been a little surreal," says Kate Davis, just landing in New York from a successful run at the Berlin Film Festival and taking the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. "This was such a solo project, with virtually no funding and an odd, slightly bizarre story, I never thought that the world would care about it or necessarily see it."

Well the world is definitely seeing it. Davis reports that Berlin was "really great, because Germany really seemed to get it. The film seems to cross national borders, probably because it really is a love story." Despite the bizarre subject matter, "Southern Comfort" has touched a broad spectrum of people‹an audience of varied cultural, political, and religious backgrounds. Davis said it was rewarding to hear how the film changed perceptions and opened minds, recognizing that "Trans people are human beings."

For more than a decade, filmmaker Kate Davis has made films exploring marginalized members of society, beginning with the Boston-shot "Girl Talk", a feature documentary on three abused runaway teenaged girls. The film was "made in Boston about Boston kids", utilizing the cinema veriteŒ style. Davis discussed her New England connection, stating: "Boston gave me my roots, and I worked with classic veteran cinema verite filmmakers." Documentaries hold strong appeal for Davis because "on some level, docs are a reflection on real life, no matter how manipulated they are. There's the potential for people to learn about aspects of life that they may not otherwise see or consider." Davis feels that the level of reality in documentary format can change people and open their minds. She stresses that this cinematic style requires an intimacy, and is hence a great privilege. "I want to give a voice to people who are overlooked and misunderstood, and film is a wonderful opportunity to do this, because it is so immediate. Film allows the audience to experience a story in a deep and intimate way."

Roger Eads is a female-to-male transsexual suffering from ovarian cancer who falls in love with Lola Cola, a sultry male-to-female transsexual in Kate Davis' film SOUTHERN COMFORT.
The film won the Sundance Top Documentary Prize.

"Southern Comfort" is a 90-minute feature about the life of Robert Eads, a 52-year old female-to-male transsexual who lives in rural Georgia. Robert passed so well as a male that the local Klu Klux Klan tried to recruit him as a member. "Southern Comfort" follows the final year of Eads' life. He was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and was turned away by more than two dozen doctors who feared that taking on a transgendered patient might harm their practice. Beginning in spring, Robert falls deeply in love with Lola, a male-to-female. That summer, his mother and father drive 10 hours to visit their "lost daughter"; a trip they know may be their last. Robert's final dream is to make it to the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, the nation's preeminent transgender gathering. Against all odds he addresses a crowd of 500 and takes Lola to "the prom that never was". Producing "Southern Comfort" was a risky undertaking, as Kate had no time to raise money because Robert was dying; being director and editor, she brought a DV camera and did the filming alone, sometimes while recording sound as a 1-person crew. "More than once, I asked myself why I was choosing to leave my cozy NY family for Georgia so that I could camp out in the trailer home of a dying transsexual," says Davis. But the poignant reality of Robert Eads' circumstances inspired Davis: "Though Robert was a private person, he let me into his life, this mother of two who at age 35 decided to become a man, this cowboy with ovarian cancer. He knew that when the film was completed, he would be dead, and therefore Œsafe'," states Davis. During the shoot Davis grew to love Robert, and as he was failing felt great tension between filming him and taking care of him. She was concerned about being too invasive or exploitative. Davis handled these delicate and trying situations deftly, and delivers a film that is devoid of sensationalism.

In the end, what drew Davis to make "Southern Comfort" was the mystery at the core of Robert's story: How could gender, something assigned at birth according to a few body parts so rigidly and permanently define a person? How could such a valuable individual be condemned by simply challenging gender norms? Robert Eads was courageously open to the probing of these questions, and once told Davis: "If this film helps one other Trans-man go to a doctor or changes the heart of one straight person, then it's worth it." "Southern Comfort" will open in New York at the Film Forum on Wednesday February 21 for a two-week run. The film was picked up by HBO to be broadcast next fall.

Anka Theroux is a filmmaker and writer who attended film school in New York and has worked on several film festivals in New York and Istanbul. Most recently, she was Executive Director in October of Providence's Renaissance City Film Festival.