Uncle Gloria: One Helluva Ride!
(Robyn Symon, US 2016, 75 min., DCP)
ImageOut. A darkly funny, stranger-than-fiction film that’s full of family drama and fireworks. During a nasty divorce, Butch Stein, the 67 year-old Jewish macho and homophobic owner of a South Florida auto-wrecking company hides from the law ... as a woman, which starts this twisting tale of self discovery. Naming herself after her two idols –Gloria Estefan and Gloria Steinem, she decides to remodel herself in much the same way Butch once lovingly restored his old cars. As a senior citizen, she undergoes a risky sex change operation, becomes a dominatrix then a transgender activist, and along the way finds love – all while trying to reconcile with her dysfunctional family.
Uncle Gloria was selected for a prestigious Film Independent Documentary Lab Fellowship with the International Documentary Association. Shot over 20 years, this amazing documentary got its start when former PBS producer, Robyn Symon, received a call to film Stein’s reassignment process.
With a twisting plot and lots of humor, Uncle Gloria is an important film about letting go of labels and accepting people for who they are.