★★★
Julie Sokolow’s documentary gives us a portrait of Brooke Guinan, who became the only transgendered firefighter in New York’s Fire Department. Brooke started life as George William and always wanted to be the third generation of firefighters in her family. Woman on Fire gives us interviews with Guinan’s family, NYFD personnel, and Guinan herself to reconstruct her story, intercutting those with occasional shots of locations, photos or other memorabilia. It’s a stolid approach to documentary.
Along the same lines, the content of Woman on Fire should be more interesting than it is, especially given its subject. Sokolow’s interviews remain deferential, and we don’t hear much that we wouldn’t have expected. Guinan’s mother was surprised at her son’s transition and had to adjust to it, Guinan faced discrimination at the firehouse, and Guinan has managed to find acceptance finally. While the facts are interesting, Woman on Fire doesn’t give us insight into the driving energy of Guinan’s life. We get little of how she felt as George or of what challenges she feels now. Sokolow keeps a respectful distance from her subject with the result that the film feels more like a newspaper article than a documentary film.
There are interesting facts here. For example, Guinan’s abiding interest in comics and superheroes is clearly linked to her desire to be a firefighter and to her trying to understand her own unique sexuality. Guinan herself brings this up, but the film doesn’t pursue the topic further despite the correspondences Guinan sees. It’s also interesting to learn that Guinan’s partner is a straight male, but the film doesn’t look deeply enough into this relationship to help us understand it. What are the kinds of emotions and feelings that arise in both parts of such a relationship? Woman on Fire could have brought some genuine insight into their lives if Sokolow had asked even a few more questions about that. And one of the most interesting facts we learn doesn’t even focus on Guinan. Her father had been one of the first responders in the 9/11 attacks, and he changed as a result of the experience, becoming withdrawn and eventually divorcing his wife. This isn’t the film for that story, but there’s clearly another documentary waiting to look at the effects of that catastrophe on the people involved in it.
In general, Woman on Fire is a faintly hagiographic portrait of its subject that doesn’t take us deeply into Guinan’s experience as she sorted out her sexuality and forged her identity and future. The film has a great topic, but it doesn’t help us understand what it felt like for Guinan or give us much insight into the myriad ramifications of transitioning from being a male to being a female in our male-oriented world.
Atlanta Film Festival: Sunday March 26 8:00pm at the Plaza Theater.
Julie Sokolow’s documentary gives us a portrait of Brooke Guinan, who became the only transgendered firefighter in New York’s Fire Department. Brooke started life as George William and always wanted to be the third generation of firefighters in her family. Woman on Fire gives us interviews with Guinan’s family, NYFD personnel, and Guinan herself to reconstruct her story, intercutting those with occasional shots of locations, photos or other memorabilia. It’s a stolid approach to documentary.
Along the same lines, the content of Woman on Fire should be more interesting than it is, especially given its subject. Sokolow’s interviews remain deferential, and we don’t hear much that we wouldn’t have expected. Guinan’s mother was surprised at her son’s transition and had to adjust to it, Guinan faced discrimination at the firehouse, and Guinan has managed to find acceptance finally. While the facts are interesting, Woman on Fire doesn’t give us insight into the driving energy of Guinan’s life. We get little of how she felt as George or of what challenges she feels now. Sokolow keeps a respectful distance from her subject with the result that the film feels more like a newspaper article than a documentary film.
There are interesting facts here. For example, Guinan’s abiding interest in comics and superheroes is clearly linked to her desire to be a firefighter and to her trying to understand her own unique sexuality. Guinan herself brings this up, but the film doesn’t pursue the topic further despite the correspondences Guinan sees. It’s also interesting to learn that Guinan’s partner is a straight male, but the film doesn’t look deeply enough into this relationship to help us understand it. What are the kinds of emotions and feelings that arise in both parts of such a relationship? Woman on Fire could have brought some genuine insight into their lives if Sokolow had asked even a few more questions about that. And one of the most interesting facts we learn doesn’t even focus on Guinan. Her father had been one of the first responders in the 9/11 attacks, and he changed as a result of the experience, becoming withdrawn and eventually divorcing his wife. This isn’t the film for that story, but there’s clearly another documentary waiting to look at the effects of that catastrophe on the people involved in it.
In general, Woman on Fire is a faintly hagiographic portrait of its subject that doesn’t take us deeply into Guinan’s experience as she sorted out her sexuality and forged her identity and future. The film has a great topic, but it doesn’t help us understand what it felt like for Guinan or give us much insight into the myriad ramifications of transitioning from being a male to being a female in our male-oriented world.
