Believing in music

WashBlade.com

Film about transgender chorus gets screening at Lincoln Temple UCC

Anyone attending a gay choral concert has experienced the strange power of seeing a group of gay men or lesbians singing together. Amplify that by about 100 percent, and you?ll get a slight idea of what it must be like to hear Transcendence, the transgender choir of San Francisco that?s the focus of the documentary ?The Believers.? Music soothes the savage beast, and in this case, that beast is intolerance.

The film opens with a transgender woman, Ashley, listening to a phone message from her mother, who says she shouldn?t ?give [the filmmakers] a screwed up background? during any interviews. It?s a perfect beginning for a film about misconceptions, denial and the need for community, especially since Ashley?s not just another chorus member ? she?s actually one of the group?s founders.