Southern Comfort

2001 "Love is a many-gendered thing"
7.6| 1h30m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 25 January 2001 Released
Producted By: HBO Documentary Films
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.nextwavefilms.com/southern/
Info

This moving documentary chronicles the last year in the life of Robert Eads, a trans man dying of ovarian cancer. We're introduced to several prominent figures in Robert's life -- most importantly, his life partner and caretaker Lola Cola, who is also trans. The two prepare to lead a panel at the annual Southern Comfort conference, a yearly event created for transgender individuals.

Genre

Documentary

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Southern Comfort (2001) is currently not available on any services.

Cast

Director

Kate Davis

Production Companies

HBO Documentary Films

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Southern Comfort Audience Reviews

Scanialara You won't be disappointed!
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Walter Sloane Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
evening1 Who knew that transsexual people had their own annual convention? This fascinating documentary takes us to the Southern Comfort gathering, which at one point honors the protagonist of this film, Robert "Grandpa" Eads, a female-to-male transsexual in the final stages of cervical cancer.We also get to meet Eads's surrogate family of other transsexuals -- his girlfriend Lola Cola, son Maxwell and his girlfriend, and friend Cas. Along the way we encounter Eads's biological kin. His embarrassed parents insist on having their faces blotted out. His son at times refers to Robert as Mom -- yet says that if he married he'd have wanted Robert to serve as his best man. Representing the new generation, Robert's adorable young grandson is unconditionally accepting. The folksy, pipe-smoking Eads is a delightful personality, completely at home in his own skin. He sensitively describes the Catch-22 dilemma of being born into the wrong sex -- one faces the choice of remaining miserable in that gender, or making everyone one loves miserable by getting surgery to make the change. He describes the rejection he felt within his own family of origin, quoting his mother as saying: Why couldn't you have just remained gay? The movie touches on other problems, such as prejudice in the wider community, including among medical professionals, the financial challenges of obtaining sexual-reassignment surgery, and the presence of medical quacks who may not be qualified to perform the transformation.This gently educative work is well worth viewing. RIP, Mr. Eads.
kaz4417 This movie was captivating from the start. The trans-gendered people have almost always been a mystery and existed on the fringe of society, but this film put a human face on this issue. It showed how we all have a need to be together and share our hope and dreams with one another, and it also showed that the politics of friendship know no specific sexual preference barriers. My heart went out to most of these people shown in this project because they have been treated so poorly by society as a whole. Robert Eads died because there were no medical professionals willing to treat him. In the greatest democracy in the history of the world, we still view some citizens as sub-human. It was such an eye opening experience that is still haunts me to this day. Hopefully this film can lead us to a dialog and a dialog can lead us to real change.
legallyblonde254 This documentary has won many awards and I can see why. This is one of the best documentaries that I have ever seen. It is about a trans-gender from a woman to man named Robert Eads. This takes place in rural Toccoa, Georgia where Robert resides in a trailer. Because of prejudice and hate, the doctors refuse to treat Robert's ovarian cancer, which develop in his existing ovaries. He finds comfort in his trans-gender girlfriend Lola Cola and attends his last Southern Comfort conference. This film taught me a lot about diversity and how it is at times disregarded in this country. This made me open my eyes and stand up for the minorities of this country. I hope that the people who view this will get the same feeling whenever they view this documentary
Haydeck This has to be the best documentary I have ever seen. Just a matter of time when someone will do a movie about Robert Eads, the most extraordinary southern cowboy. This documentary could have been mediocre if it wasn't for him, his incredible wit, optimism and intelligence. A real man from head to toes who ironically died of a widespread ovarian cancer, primarily because no doctor wanted to treat a transsexual. It is a marvelous real life drama that doesn't preach, it simply delivers the story that deeply touches you, points out the stupidity of prejudices and inhumanity of American health system and rises questions about what gender really means.