Mama Gloria

Mama Gloria (2020)

Meet Mama Gloria. Chicago’s Black transgender icon Gloria Allen, now in her 70s, blazed a trail for trans people like few others before her. Emerging from Chicago’s South Side drag ball culture in the 1960s, Gloria overcame traumatic violence to become a proud leader in her community. Most famously, she pioneered a charm school for young transgender people that served as inspiration for Chicago playwright Philip Dawkins’ hit play Charm. Luchina Fisher’s empathic and engaging documentary is not only a portrait of a groundbreaking legend, but also a celebration of unconditional love, the love Gloria received from her own mother and that she now gives to her chosen children.

Date of release
2020-10-14
TMDB
1.0 / 10 (2)
Runtime
1h 16m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Luchina Fisher

Interesting facts

Mama Gloria is an American documentary film directed by Luchina Fisher. The film tells the life story of Gloria Allen, a septuagenarian trans woman from the south side of Chicago. Mama Gloria premiered in October 2020 at the Chicago International Film Festival. The film received awards from the Teaneck International Film Festival and the Milwaukee Film Festival.

Production

Mama Gloria is director and writer Luchina Fisher's debut documentary feature. She developed Mama Gloria so her own daughter, teenage trans advocate Gia Parr, would have a story about a Black trans woman role model that didn't focus solely on their vulnerability to violence. The idea originated from her friend E. Patrick Johnson, who shared a Chicago Tribune profile of Allen and suggested Fisher produce a documentary.

Fisher co-produced the film with Yvonne Welbon, Zainab Ali, and Lorna Grisby. The majority of the crew were members of the Black LGBTQ community.

Filming began in 2018. Although production was shut down at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fisher had enough footage by that time for a complete story.

Of the production, Allen stated in an interview in the Chicago Tribune, "“It’s just like a dream for me...Everything turned out to be so good and I’m so grateful and thankful to her."

The soundtrack includes "Presence of a Legend," an original song by trans singer-songerwriter Shea Diamond.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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