Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network will air Becoming Chaz: Found In Transition tonight, the much talked-about documentary about Chaz Bono's highly publicized transition from female to male. Bono, the child of Sonny Bono and Cher, was born Chastity Bono in 1969 but told Winfrey this week that he had always had hated being a girl and felt like his body had betrayed him in puberty, leaving him feeling trapped. Even coming out as a lesbian felt like an act. His transition, he told Winfrey, has been liberating, but has not been without its difficulties.
The film, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (see trailer), was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered in January. It has been hailed for putting a face on transgender issues and the family and relationship struggles that even a progressive mother like Cher and a supportive girlfriend like Jennifer Elia can face in coming to grips with radical changes including gender reassignment surgery (Bono's double mastectomy is documented in the film) and hormone therapy.
And while the Chaz Bono story has provided plenty of fodder for both tabloids and bigots, the film itself doesn't do a lot of sensationalizing, focusing instead on the very personal story of Chaz, his relationships, the realities and side-effects of gender reassignment, and the act and art of becoming the man Chaz always felt he was meant to be.
The documentary is the first film to be presented in the OWN Network's new OWN Documentary Film Club.
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