Mya Taylor
-
Kickstarting VIVA DIVA, a Short Film Starring Mya Taylor
Mya Taylor will follow up her Film Independent Spirit Award-winning performance in Tangerine with performances in several short films which tackle transgender issues. Her latest project, VIVA DIVA, which is billed as “the story of two trans women of color Rozene and Diva, on a road trip of a lifetime,” is aiming to raise $10,000 on Kickstarter. Written and directed by Sundance Institute Native Lab fellow, Daniel Flores, VIVA DIVA is a road trip movie featuring Rozene and Diva as they make their way down to Guadalajara for gender reassignment surgery. Rozene stops in on her father to try to get answers about […]
by Paula Bernstein on Mar 7, 2016 -
Alongside Spotlight, Mya Taylor, Krisha, The Look of Silence Nab 2016 Spirit Awards
Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight, about a team of Boston journalists investigating Catholic Church pedophilia scandals in the 1980s, swept the Film Independent Spirit Awards yesterday, scoring Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing awards, in addition to the Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble. As if often the case at the Spirits, the Open Roads released film was by far the highest-grossing film in all of its winning categories, sometimes to a surprising degree. On the awards circuit this year, Spotlight has been that rare frontrunner without a galvanizing lead, or even supporting, performance. (Perhaps acknowledging that fact, the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 28, 2016 -
“I Can’t Try to Be an Activist If People Don’t Know My Real Story”: Tangerine’s Mya Taylor
“I can’t keep beating around the bush because I’ll eventually run out of bushes to beat around,” sighs Mya Taylor. We’ve just spent 90 minutes together in her hotel room at the 59th London Film Festival. In that time, I don’t speak much, but when I do, I’m drawing parallels between Taylor and Marlon Brando. To be fair, I’d just seen Stevan Riley’s Listen to Me Marlon, so referencing some uncovered Brando philosophy from the documentary during my conversation with Taylor felt pertinent at the time. Mya Taylor is a black trans-woman born in 1991, so in retrospect, the comparison is pretty ridiculous. […]
by Taylor Hess on Oct 29, 2015 -
“We Didn’t Fictionalize Much”: Sean Baker on Tangerine
Shot on three iPhones 5s’s with a pair of unknown actresses as leads, Sean Baker’s Tangerine was a hazardous proposition, but the finished product justifies every ounce of risk involved in the production, showing just how far the crew could stretch a minuscule budget. Shot on and around real Los Angeles streets and shops, the film keeps pace with transgender sex workers Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) and Alexandra (Mya Taylor) as they zigzag around the city on Christmas Eve on dual missions. Sin-Dee’s embarking on a “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” revenge mission against her two-timing boyfriend […]
by Alice Stoehr on Jul 8, 2015
