''Open'' is a 2010 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

, written and directed by

Jake Yuzna Jake Yuzna is an American film director, screenwriter, and curator. His debut feature Open was the first American film to win the Teddy Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and in 2005 Yuzna become the youngest recipient of funding from the Na ...

. The story centers around two intertwined love stories starring real queer, trans, pandrogynous individuals as they explore new forms of love, sex, and gender emerging at the dawn of the new millennium. Premiering in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival in 2010, ''Open'' became the first American film to win the Teddy Jury Prize at the

Teddy Award The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale). In the most part, the jury consists of organisers of gay ...

. The film also won Best Narrative Film at the TLV Festival in Tel Aviv Israel, Best Performance at

Newfest NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of national and international LGBT film/video in the world. Founded in 1988, The New Festival, Inc ...

, as well as having the Jake Yuzna named a Four in Focus filmmaker at

Outfest Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival ...

. Much of the film was inspired by the artist and musician Genesis P-Orridge, who served as creative consultant on the film and is included in a post screening dialog with Jake Yuzna at

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sch ...

available as a DVD bonus feature on the North American release. The Detroit-based music duo

Adult (band) Adult (stylized as ADULT.) is an American band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 1998 by married couple Nicola Kuperus and Adam Lee Miller. The band integrates vocals with drum machines, analog synthesizers and electronic/punk elements.Copeland ...

created an original score for the film. The film was produced by Narrative Films and released by Ariztical Entertainment in North America on September 27, 2011.

Plot

When the young hermaphrodite Cynthia (Gaea Gaddy) meets Gen (Tempest Crane) and Jay (Jendeen Forberg), a couple recovering from plastic surgery, she learns of Pandrogyny, in which two people merge their facial features in order to reflect their evolution from separate identities into one unified entity. Inspired by this, Cynthia abandons her husband and suburban life to embark on a road trip with Gen through the remnants of 20th century America. Simultaneously, a young trans man, Syd (Morty Diamond), meets a young punk man, Nick (Daniel Luedtke). After having sex with one another, and someone born of the opposite

assigned sex Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of birt ...

for the first time, Syd and Nick find themselves falling into love, a love that forces them to confront how hormone treatments have forever changed sex and relationships. Not science fiction, but American reality, OPEN brings together a cast of real hermaphroditic, pandrogynous, and transpeople to create a revealing look at the pioneers of the new human experience, and the emerging possibilities for humanity at the dawn of a new millennium.

Cast

* Gaea Gaddy as Cynthia, a young

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bin ...

person. * Morty Diamond as Sid, a young

trans man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that inc ...

. * Daniel Luedtke as Nick, a young queer man. * Tempest Crane and Jendeen Forberg as Gen and Jaye, a pandrogynous person based on Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P Orridge.

Awards

* 2010 Teddy Jury Prize at the

* Best Narrative Film at the TLV Festival in Tel Aviv Israel * Best Performance (awarded to actor Morty Diamond) at

* Four in Focus filmmaker (awarded to director Jake Yuzna) at

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 1538927, Open
Distributor Website
2010 3D films American drama films 2010s English-language films American LGBT-related films Films about trans men 2010 LGBT-related films 2010 films LGBT-related drama films Queer-related mass media 2010s American films