She Gone Rogue

The short film She Gone Rogue presents a bright example of socially important cinematography. The questions raised in it are actual nowadays and are under discussion in all spheres of human life. The transgender personalities are in search of their right to have their word without being prejudiced and judged by their gender characteristics and body parts. The film sharply depicts the inner state of the main character and its travel inside the society’s opinion that can say nothing but “she gone rogue”. It was shot in 2012 by director Rhys Ernst with starring Zackary Drucker, Holly Woodlawn and Vaginal Davis. The most evident element of the movie used to express the basis ideas of the film is mise-en-scene that reveals the relationship between the characters as vivid as the director’s view on the problem.

The main character of the story Darling is in search of herself in life and also her relationship. The initial mise-en-scene introduces the world of transgender people to the viewer by using clockwise and counterclockwise directions symbolizing the questions and unstable position of ideas of the main character as well as the surroundings. Darling runs in the forest searching for herself and for the answers about her identity. As Dean Spade puts it, the society has to change the idea of naming personalities and discriminate them by defining their gender and judging by their body characteristics (61). Horizontal and vertical mise-en-scenes change each other, creating atmosphere of eternity and emotional coloring. The main idea of the film She Gone Rogue is to show the travel of the main character Darling in search of answers to all the questions. The parallel with Alice in Wonderland is possible through the idea of travelling into various wonder worlds that exist in parallel universe (She Gone Rogue). The holes that move the main character into various surroundings are intensified by dotted mise-en-scene that serves for a number of purposes. The main idea is to intensify the image of the main character, create chaotic atmosphere and to show the search for answers. The development of action has very high tempo creating the atmosphere of full immersion for the onlooker. The music and various chaotic sounds help the viewers see the difficulty of situation of the main character. The stop-cadre mise-en-scene in episodes with Holly Woodlawn and Vaginal Davis shows the idea of search for the answer (She Gone Rogue). The soul of every person is unique, and the answer of its real aim in the world is hard to find, which is evident at the end of the story that evokes more questions than answers to Darling’s mind. Vaginal Davis’ life was extremely difficult as he felt that his life is determined by his body characteristics, which he had no chance to change or choose (Muñoz 98). The way to the future is to refuse the generally accepted characteristics and to consider people by their ideas and minds, their feeling of the world around them (Spade 62). The story of Vaginal Davis proves this by the life of this person, who experienced significant discrimination and born with black skin was forced to be willing to become white, to have something that would identify him with white people to have normal life (Muñoz 97). The film intensifies the contradiction of personality and the society generally accepted ideas and questions for the truth.

In conclusion, the film aimed to make a picture of director’s point of view on the problem of transgender people’s problems and their constant search and chaos within their own mind and contradicting the society’s mind. The film makes more questions than answers, and the variety of mise-en-scenes used in it intensify the general idea of constant search of oneself in the body he/she did not choose. The main character travels in the side universe, where there is an opportunity to share the problem with the leading transgender people like Vaginal Davis and Holly Woodlawn.