Paradise is Not for sale

Otherwise known as Paradise Is Not for Sale, this documentary on the lives of transvestites features interviews with people like Christine Jorgensen, historical footage showing Hitler's treatment of cross-dressers, and a clip from a 1919 film that indicates attitudes at that time to those who are "Different from the Others," as the title states. Director Teit Ritzau records Jorgensen's meeting with the two doctors who performed the operations necessary to change her from a man to a woman -- operations which made headlines around the world in the 1950s. Giorgia O'Brian started cross-dressing when she/he began parodying opera dressed as a diva, and since has gone on to appear in several Federico Fellini films. The lone original woman among those interviewed is Thomas Holck, who after suffering through childhood as a girl underwent the operations necessary to change gender and has been happy about his new identity ever since (even bragging about his sexual prowess). An interesting documentary to compare to this work by Ritzau is Lee Grant's What Sex Am I?, also released in 1985.