One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story
Screened Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Synopsis
Steven Stanton was living a normal American life with a lovely wife and teenage son. He had an important job, and was successful, well thought of and influential. He loved sports and was an avid runner. But on the inside, Stanton knew that his life was anything but usual. From an early age, Steve Stanton knew that he was really meant to be a woman.
Her Name Was Steven is the story of Stanton’s metamorphosis from Steven to Susan… and of the triumphs and tragedies along the way. The film goes far beyond the physical aspects of transitioning from a man to a woman—exploring the deep emotional, psychological, spiritual and political changes that Stanton experiences as a transgender person.
The film focuses in part on a particularly troubling period when Stanton was fired as city manager when a local newspaper revealed he was planning to become a woman. Using family photographs, home videos, tape recordings and twenty years of Stanton’s personal journals, the film explores a lifetime of pain and joy, progress and setbacks.
Her Name Was Steven explores the quiet moments as Stanton remakes her body, and captures the conflicts of her teenage son and wife, who grapple with the transition that will forever change her life.
