Directed by Sam Feder, known for the 2014 documentary Kate Bornstein is a Queer & Pleasant Danger, Disclosure is like a spiritual sequel to 1995’s The Celluloid Closet, this time zooming in specifically on transgender representation. It features an entire cast of trans commentators, including actors Laverne Cox (who also serves as narrator), Elliot Fletcher, and Bianca Leigh; historian Susan Stryker; writer/director Lilly Wachowski; and many more.

Perhaps the most important statistic mentioned here is that 80 percent of Americans claim not to know a single trans person. Therefore, television and film are largely responsible for the public’s views on trans people (transgender issues being largely left out of American classrooms). Not only does the media shape the public’s views, but transgender viewers shape their identities based upon what they see on screen. This possibly leads to some troubling ramifications for cisgender as well as transgender audiences.

The commenters point out that the most common portrayals of trans women are as sex workers—and many of those interviewed discuss the monotony of always having to play these roles. The next most common portrayal is the tradition of male comedians dressing up as women and perpetuating a view of trans women as a source of mockery. Medical shows now have a trope of trans characters finding out that the life-affirming hormones they are taking are actually giving them cancer. But perhaps the worst offender is the stereotype of transgender characters as liars and that when they are discovered, they are treated with disgust, and perhaps violence.

Disclosure explores popular television and movies the casual viewer may think offer positive portrayals, but it points out how they are actually problematic in varying degrees. It takes ample time on The Crying Game, Boys Don’t Cry, and The L Word to explain how these productions mishandled trans characters, such as creating them out of thin air to “inspire” the cisgender main character (Dallas Buyers Club) or leaving out or downplaying their roles (Stonewall). Trans men, on the other hand, are still an anomaly in popular culture, and the commenters state this has a lot to do with how women are more objectified and therefore so are trans women.

The film doesn’t just criticize improper depictions. It also finds examples to celebrate: the movies of John Waters, especially the original Hairspray (1988), in which drag queen Divine plays a cisgender mother; The Queen, the first documentary about underground drag balls, which was rereleased in 2019, and the most famous documentary featuring transgender people, Paris Is Burning (1990). Most recently there have been the series Orange Is the New Black, Pose, and Transparent—though the Jeffrey Tambor scandal is briefly touched upon, none of the clips shown feature the disgraced actor.

My favorite revelation of this eye-opening documentary was discovering that trans actress Sandra Caldwell has had a career spanning four decades without disclosing her trans identity until 2017. One can only hope Feder will follow this up with a biopic about Caldwell as well as those she says came before her. Disclosure is a documentary with its pulse on the moment at hand, and I cannot recommend anything more highly to a LGBTQIA audience so far this year.