No Ordinary Man (film)

Last updated
No Ordinary Man
Directed by Aisling Chin-Yee
Chase Joynt
Written byAisling Chin-Yee
Amos Mac
Produced bySarah Spring
Cinematography Léna Mill-Reuillard
Edited byAisling Chin-Yee
Music byRich Aucoin
Billy Tipton
Production
company
Parabola Films
Distributed byOscilloscope, Radiant Films International, Les Films du 3 mars
Release date
  • September 10, 2020 (2020-09-10)(TIFF) [1]
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Box office$15,508 [2] [3]

No Ordinary Man is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt, and written by Aisling Chin-Yee and Amos Mac. [4] It is a portrait of Billy Tipton, the jazz musician who was revealed after his death to have been transgender. [5] [6]

Contents

The film's production was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. However, as principal photography was already completed, it mainly affected tasks such as editing and post-production work that could be done remotely. [5]

The film premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. [7] It was subsequently screened at the 2020 Inside Out Film and Video Festival, where it won the award for Best Canadian Film. [8]

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired U.S. rights to No Ordinary Man.

Critical response

For Now and The Georgia Straight , Kevin Ritchie praised the film, writing that its "overlapping realizations create a complex portrait while making No Ordinary Man as much about the present as it is about the past. [It] ultimately builds to a moving and surprising climax in which the empathetic trans views of Tipton are finally able to eclipse the parochial tabloid tale." [9]

The film was named to TIFF's year-end Canada's Top Ten list for feature films. [10]

In The New Yorker , Richard Brody writes: "In No Ordinary Man, the directors Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt go fascinatingly, probingly further, to question the very prospect of making a biographical film about their subject, the trans jazz musician Billy Tipton. No Ordinary Man, in that sense, is a genre unto itself, a meta-biographical film about a musician who earned his place in history posthumously, for reasons that he carefully avoided revealing throughout his life." [11]

Accolades

YearAwardCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
2021 Directors Guild of Canada Allan King Award for Best Documentary Film Chase Joynt, Aisling-Chin YeeNominated [12]
2022 GLAAD Media Awards Outstanding Documentary No Ordinary ManNominated [13]

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References

  1. ↑ "No Ordinary Man". Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  2. ↑ "No Ordinary Man (2021)". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  3. ↑ "No Ordinary Man (2021)". The Numbers . Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
  4. ↑ Pat Mullen, "‘Inconvenient Indian’, ‘New Corporation’, ‘No Ordinary Man’ Rep Canadian Docs in TIFF Line-up". Point of View , July 30, 2020.
  5. 1 2 Pat Mullen, "Canada at Cannes: Documentary in the Time of COVID". Point of View , June 25, 2020.
  6. ↑ Knegt, Peter (31 March 2021). "The media tainted the story of trans jazz musician Billy Tipton. This film wants to tell his truth". CBC Arts. Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  7. ↑ Victoria Ahearn, "TIFF announces all 50 titles for pandemic-tailored 2020 event" Archived 2020-10-31 at the Wayback Machine . Toronto Star , July 30, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Inside Out LGBT film fest reveals prize winners early". Toronto Star , October 5, 2020.
  9. ↑ Kevin Ritchie, "VIFF review: No Ordinary Man, about jazz musician and trans icon Billy Tipton, packs an emotional wallop". The Georgia Straight , September 19, 2020.
  10. ↑ Victoria Ahearn, "Toronto International Film Festival releases Top Ten lists for 2020" Archived 2021-01-04 at the Wayback Machine . Squamish Chief , December 9, 2020.
  11. ↑ No Ordinary Man, Reviewed: Portrait of an Artist Enduring Transphobia After His Death The New Yorker , July 16, 2021.
  12. ↑ Kelly Townsend, "All My Puny Sorrows leads film nominees for 2021 DGC Awards". Playback , September 24, 2021.
  13. ↑ "The Nominees for the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards". GLAAD. 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2022-01-22.
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