![]() ![]() Tangerine offers a unique insight into a little known corner of LA inhabited by low-paid immigrants and prostitutes.Īs it turned out the film’s insight into a particular transgender experience would also tap into a zeitgeist for trans-themed content. I struggle to look at the film because of the memories. I would wear shades all the time - even at night - to hide my features. “The only challenge I had was that I had just started my transition so I had my insecurities. That’s my personality,” said the first-time actress. The intimacy is something that can only be achieved by a skeleton crew, a family unit. “You don’t always need a ton of money,” acknowledges Baker. “We used a Mike Leigh method of workshop where I encouraged improvisation,” says Baker. The story took place across one day for budgetary reasons. I was really drawn to their interaction.” ![]() “She was telling us stories, anecdotes and introducing to women who were working the streets at the time, including Kiki. “She was the first one to show enthusiasm,” explains Baker. So we agreed to shoot the film on an iphone five with the help of a Steadicam Smoothee, an anamorphic lens adapter and Final Cut Pro.”īaker had met the film’s co-lead Mya Taylor, a trans woman with no prior acting experience, at a local LGBT centre. “I’m on my fifth film so I can’t pull favours any more like hiring budget cameras and being able to shoot on film on the cheap. “When I presented the script to my producers they said ‘there’s no way you can pull this off with this script’. You do what you have to do to make the film.”īaker’s regular producers, including Chris Bergoch and Darren Dean, would still take some convincing, however. You want to be able to at least pay your crew well. “So in the end after Starlet I reached out to Mark and Jay Duplass and said ‘I guess I’m ready to make that micro-budget film’. The actors I wanted wouldn’t read the script so I couldn’t get the money.” “I had a film that cost more, in the five-six million dollar range but it was hard to finance. “After Starlet another micro-budget film was the last thing I wanted to do,” confesses Baker. Indie champions Mark and Jay Duplass had offered Baker enough budget for another small scale film after seeing The Prince Of Broadway but the director was keen to break out of the micro-bubble. Tangerine might have never seen the light of day, however. “For decades it has been known as an area frequented by transgender sex-workers but I was taken aback that it hadn’t been focused on before in film or TV.” “I live half a mile from Santa Monica and Highland, where the film takes place”, explains Baker, perhaps best known for 2008 immigrant story Prince of Broadway and 2012 SXSW drama Starlet, starring Dree Hemingway. Tangerine was inspired by an underworld that plays out virtually on the director’s doorstep. “Mirovision weren’t entirely sure how it would go down but it went well,” confesses Baker of the film’s Korean premiere. “I thought we would be splitting audiences 50/50,” admits multi-hyphenate Sean Baker about his fifth feature, a comedy-drama in which a transgender prostitute tears through Tinseltown on Christmas Eve searching for the pimp who broke her heart, crossing paths with clients, co-workers and enemies along the way.īold, insightful and hilarious, the risqué festival-favourite, which has taken $700k domestic for Magnolia, was sold to key markets including UK, France and Australia but also, refreshingly, further afield to the likes of Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico and Hungary. It would be any year’s underdog.Īnd yet few films this season can match Tangerine for invention or breadth of critical support. Shot on an iPhone for a budget of $100,000 and starring non-professional actors, Sundance hit Tangerine is this year’s awards underdog.
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