April Ashley

Two legends contested their identities as women in the court of public opinion: April Ashley, who was immortalized as a trailblazer by embracing her transgender history; and Amanda Lear, who has consciously denied and obfuscated her history for decades. Their divergent paths reveal disparate but intertwined legacies.

From wartime Liverpool to London’s high society, the epic story of one of Britain’s most prominent transgender women - model, dancer, and pioneer for transgender equality.

Drama documentary which takes the form of an up-dated version of Pygmalion. With a special music score by jazz group Working Week, with real "society" characters and locations from 1984.

Whoever wanted a sex reassignment surgery in the 1950's could do so in Casablanca, at French gynaecologist Georges Burou's clinic, without fear of psychological examination. The French transgender singer known as Coccinelle was one of the first to use Burou’s services, and many others followed. Michiel Van Erp’s film follows five women who underwent surgery during that time, just before the sexual revolution and the Gay Liberation movement of the 1960's. Intimate interviews reveal their lifestyle, what made them change their sex, how it influenced their lives, and how they cope with the unavoidable ageing.

Years before the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 enabled transgender people to obtain some basic rights, the practical difficulties faced by those wishing to change the sex assigned to them at birth were explored in this film produced for the ATV current affairs series Format V. Touching and sometimes frank, the film looks at issues around acceptance but there are also moments of humour, such as Steve's bad luck when bumping into his mother on his first night out presenting as male. The short also features an interview with April Ashley.