| | |  | Real Momentum | Home » » » Red Without Blue | | | | | | | Description: | | An honest portrayal of a family in turmoil, RWB follows a pair of identical twins as one transitions from male to female. Captured over a period of three years, the film documents the twins and their parents, examining the Farley's struggle to redefine their family. Through its portrayal of these articulate and independent twins, each haunted by the painful experiences of their adolescence, the film questions normative standards of gender and identity - as Mark and Clair reassert their indescribable bond as identical twins. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Clair Farley, Jennie Farley, Mark Oliver Farley, Scott Farley, Jennifer Jordan | | Director:
| Brooke Sebold | | Format:
| Color, DVD, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Cinema Libre | | Run Time:
| 74 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| October 02, 2007 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 6 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 6 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 17 found the following review helpful:
 Stunningly Moving!Nov 17, 2007
By Robert Whirry
"Welcome Palms!"
It's not surprising that Red Without Blue may make some viewers uncomfortable, especially those who are used to films that explore only the struggle and difficulties that transgender people face. And for the first 20 minutes or so of Red Without Blue, you believe that this is exactly the kind of film you are watching. But then, something remarkable begins to happen. This family that has begun the film in a state of chaos and dissention begins, against all expectations, to HEAL. The process is slow, and unfolds in remarkable and unexpected ways. A father who is at first distant and removed slowly rediscovers and comes to re-value the depth of the love he has for his twin sons (one of whom is now becoming his beautiful daughter). A mother who is emotionally brittle and at times even contemptuous of her transgender child gradually comes to accept the new reality that has entered her life, in part through the near-miraculous appearance of another transgender woman in her own Montana town who helps her movingly learn that she is not so much losing a son as gaining a daughter. And two brothers who begin the film having lost the deep connection of love and trust which has bound them together in the past slowly come to rediscover and re-forge that bond.
It's a narrative trajectory that few, if any films exporing the transgender experience have charted before, and you get the feeling that it's one the filmmakers themselves didn't see coming. Yet I believe the story this film tells is also a valid part of the transgender experience - the story of a family initially ripped apart by a new reality that comes to realize that the love that binds them is more important than the changes tearing them apart. That this film becomes a testament to the fact that families CAN heal, and that there are actually some trajectories in life that go upward instead of downward, makes this a film to treasure, and one I found deeply moving.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
"Today I am a boy"Jul 11, 2010
By Amaranth
"music fan"
"Red Without Blue" is a powerful documentary about twins--one is a gay man, the other is transitioning to womanhood. Mark and Alex were incredibly close as children. They had the bond of twins,and still do. Mark faces Alex's transition to Claire with difficulty. He has a hard time coming to terms with the fact that his beloved brother is becoming his sister. There's beautiful music from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons (Hegarty deems himself transsexual, though he never has had surgery)- The Crying Light,I am a Bird Now,and Antony and the Johnsons. Antony's unearthly, ethereal singing accompanies the documentary. He powerfully sings, "Today I am a boy, one day I will be a beautiful woman."
"Red without Blue" also faces darker subjects such as drug addiction and suicide attempts. The twins' parents divorced when they were young. Their mother now lives with another woman who shares her bed, considers her a great friend--but refuses to call herself a lesbian. In a sense, it's no surprise the twins struggle with their identities.
"Red without Blue" is a fascinating exploration of family, family history, and gender identity.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Fascinating!Nov 02, 2007
By Mal Schoen
I first viewed this movie at a premiere in San Francisco with the stars and filmmakers in attendance - it was such a fascinating movie that I knew I wanted to own it when it came out on DVD. I ordered it from Amazon and thoroughly enjoyed it again. This story of identical twin boys, one who grew up gay, the other who grew up transsexual and transitioned to becoming female, illuminates an interesting variation on the human experience. Well-made!
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
absolutely fascinating and thought-provokingJan 06, 2009
By Carol C.
"ccjello"
This is an oddly fascinating and thought-provoking film that I keep thinking about. It is about identical twin boys who have an idyllic early childhood in Montana, recognize their homosexuality, grow apart, become rebellious drug abusers as teenagers, attempt a joint suicide, are shipped off to separate boarding schools and denied contact with one another, and later reunite. As young adults, one of the twins identifies as transgendered, which the other twin reads as a personal rejection, but later comes to understand and support. The film culminates with Clare's surgery and emergence as a more confident woman, and shows Clare's acceptance as a woman by both her twin and by her parents. Meanwhile, Mark struggles with finding a positive romantic relationship and preserving that relationship, once found.
Okay, that's a lot to pack into one movie, but it never seems over the top, preachy, or overdone. The characters are all very real -- revealing their frustrations, anger, and vulnerability, as well as their tender sides. In the beginning, Clare comes across as whiny and self-pitying. Her twin, Mark, comes across as resentful and a tad self-centered. Their mother comes across as frustrated and not-wholly-accepting of her son & daughter. As the characters reveal more of themselves, they all become much more likeable and real. Clare, in particular, is much more attractive as a person once she settles into her womanhood and Mark is much more likeable once he has accepted Clare as she is.
Clare and Mark must be very bright and very talented and somewhat well-off, as they don't appear to face financial struggles (Clare goes to Sarah Lawrence and takes a cab to school each day. Mark is in art school.)
The film is very "real" and very "intimate" for lack of a better description. It doesn't appear to be contrived or staged, and much of the camera work is done by Mark & Clare. It gives you a behind the scenes look at their relationship, their struggles with family and parents and friends, and their personal struggles. By the end of the film, I found both of the main characters to be intriguing and likeable, and the film leaves me wanting to know more about them and hoping that they find success and happiness in life.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Compelling and uniqueNov 22, 2007
By AIROLF
A fascinating and unique documentary about twins, one gay and one a transgendered. The hardships that both of them have to go through in dealing with life and with developing romantic relationships and friendships with their family and among themselves are worth watching. This movie makes a heterosexual person who is happy in her skin realize how good she has it and how confusing and difficult it is for someone who isn't in today's society. It's impossible to imagine how much harder it must be for a twin, one of a whole to deal with the entire issue. This movie is an interesting study into one's family struggle and the coming of realization that they are a family and the only thing that matters is that they must stick together through better or worse.
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