Following a premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Chase Joynt and Aisling Chin-yee’s acclaimed documentary No Ordinary Man is now arriving next month. The film unpacks the life of American jazz musician Billy Tipton, who passed away in 1989, when it was revealed that Tipton was assigned female at birth. Seeking to correct the misrepresentation of his life, the film features interviews with Marquise Vilsón, Scott Turner Schofield, Susan Stryker, C. Riley Snorton, Thomas Page McBee, and more. Ahead of a July 16 release, the first trailer has now arrived.
Orla Smith said earlier this year, “With No Ordinary Man, directors Chase Joynt and Aisling Chin-yee reclaim the lost history of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton. Because no moving footage of Tipton exists, in this documentary, Joynt and Chin-yee ask transmasculine actors to “audition” to play Tipton, discussing their interpretations of his life and how they’d play him. Through this device, the filmmakers connect how trans history impacts trans people now.”
Watch the trailer below.
No Ordinary Man arrives on July 16.