



No Ordinary Man
Queensland Premiere
WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH, 7:00PM
UNCLASSIFIED 15+
BUY TICKETS
Director Aisling Chin-Yee & Chase Joynt
Screenwriter Aisling Chin-Yee & Amos Mac
Country Canada
Language English
Runtime 84min
Year 2020
Genre Documentary / Transgender
InsideOUT, Toronto International Film Festival
"The future of trans cinema. Arrives at something transcendent” — Indiewire
“Contrast this erasure in death with the way the trans actors looking to play him want to honor his life, and ‘No Ordinary Man’ feels like welcome reclamation of a role model from a cisnormative society that’d rather paint him as a trickster. Trans-positive filmmaking is still disappointingly rare, but it’s heartening to see its burgeoning efforts be this strong, vibrant, and celebratory.” — The Spool Review
For decades, the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. In No Ordinary Man, Tipton’s story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton’s son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legacy: how do you tell the story of someone who was hiding in plain sight yet desperate to be seen?
“Contrast this erasure in death with the way the trans actors looking to play him want to honor his life, and ‘No Ordinary Man’ feels like welcome reclamation of a role model from a cisnormative society that’d rather paint him as a trickster. Trans-positive filmmaking is still disappointingly rare, but it’s heartening to see its burgeoning efforts be this strong, vibrant, and celebratory.” — The Spool Review
For decades, the life of American Jazz musician Billy Tipton was framed as the story of an ambitious woman passing as a man in pursuit of a music career. In No Ordinary Man, Tipton’s story is re-imagined and performed by trans artists as they collectively paint a portrait of an unlikely hero. Together, the filmmakers join Tipton’s son Billy Jr. to reckon with a complicated and contested legacy: how do you tell the story of someone who was hiding in plain sight yet desperate to be seen?