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February 2005
Kevin Zegers, 20, attended the 55th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 10-20, 2005 at the Potsdamer Platz in downtown Berlin) which is featuring his recent film Transamerica.
Section:
Panorama
Screenings of Transamerica at the festival:
Mon, Feb 14, 22:45 CineStar 3
Wed, Feb 16, 22:30 CinemaxX 7
Thu, Feb 17, 18:00 CineStar 3
Fri, Feb 18, 20:30 CineStar 3
Synopsis
Bree is a conservative transsexual living in one of the poorer districts
of Los Angeles. She holds down two jobs and saves every penny she has
in order to pay for one last operation that will make her a woman at last.
Out of the blue one day she receives a phone call from New York: on the
other end of the line is a young man named Toby currently being held as
a juvenile offender who is apparently looking for his father. Bree suddenly
realises that this boy must be the product of a somewhat clumsy sexual
encounter years ago, when she was a man.
At first Bree wants to wash her hands of all responsibility for the boy, but then her therapist convinces her to face up to her past, adding that he will not approve her final operation until she has met the boy. Bree digs deep into her savings and flies to New York to release Toby from prison. The boy is handed over to her without a word of explanation and Toby believes the old girl to be some Christian missionary determined to convert reprobates to Jesus. Bree sees no reason to clear up the misunderstanding. But as soon as she learns that this dirty and dishevelled rascal intends to jump bail and hitch a ride to Los Angeles to look for his biological father in the city’s porn industry, she begins to panic.
Bree has no intention of allowing the lad to ruin her future; she persuades him to accompany her back to the west coast - secretly planning to leave him at his stepfathers along the way. Toby is happy to take her up on her offer. He is used to receiving favours from adults and paying for them with sex. And so this odd couple - each out to trick the other - sets off on a long journey across the entire continent. Transamerica - here we come!
"I was really prejudiced against casting [Kevin Zegers]"
- Duncan Tucker, Transamerica director
During a premiere interview in Berlin, Transamerica director Duncan
Tucker had these words to say about Kevin:
Kevin came to us through auditions. I was, uh,...I think I can say
this even if he were here; he's arriving in a day or two. But, uh, I was
really prejudiced against casting him because he's so pretty. And I just
thought that I wanted somebody who looked like a real street kid. But
he was so touching and vulnerable. And he's been acting since he was eight
years old, and is sort of a star to the 15 year old girls in America.
I think here in Germany, you guys have gotten some calls from some 15
year old girls, too, asking when he was coming. [The presenter added these
words to Tucker's comments: Yes, we have. We have no idea in the film
world. But the television world of the young people, they totally knew
who the man is.]...They all worked for peanuts on this project, it was
great.
The 19th TEDDY Awards 2005 is a special awards program held during the Berlin International Film Festival to recognize movies with gay-lesbian themes. This year's awards ceremony presented the SIEGESSÄULE Reader's Jury Award to Transamerica. This award is chosen by seven readers of the SIEGESSÄULE, Berlin's gay magazine, who view films from all sections of the Berlin Festival. The prize includes a cash award of 1,000 EUROs. Transamerica was featured at the Festival's "Panorama" section for art-house films. Kevin Zegers - who stars in Transamerica as Toby, a gay teen prostitute looking for his father - attended the ceremony in Berlin.
Members of the Jury:
Kerstin Ebert, Behruz Foroutan, Denis Grobotek, Ursula Huber, Oliver Jütting,
Sandra Lindner, and Trudie Wilson.