'Becoming Chaz' review: inside transgender world

David Wiegand, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, May 9, 2011

Documentary by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato. 9 p.m. Tues. on the OWN channel on digital cable.

Trying to imagine what transgender people feel about their bodies takes the whole notion of "walk a mile in my shoes" up several notches. Invariably, transgender people talk about feeling trapped in the wrong body, but that's hardly the same as wishing you were 30 pounds lighter or that your eyes weren't so close together.

Several recent documentaries have tried to help the rest of the world understand the realities of being transgender, but, ironically, one of the better efforts does it well in spite of the fact that it focuses on the offspring of one of the most famous couples in pop culture.

"Becoming Chaz," airing Tuesday on the OWN digital channel, surveys a year in the life of Chaz Bono, born Chastity Bono in 1969 and often trotted out to act cute at the end of TV's "Sonny and Cher Show" when she was a small child. If you think the film, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, is all about how Mama learns to use the proper pronouns when talking on TV about her older child, you'd be mostly wrong.

Yes, Cher is in the film, but only minimally, and, frankly, she's almost beside the real point. If she has issues trying to accept that her daughter is now her son, they really are no different than the issues many parents, friends and siblings have to confront, even if they aren't chatting with David Letterman.



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