THE LIST (UK) - 3 November 2005

Isla Leaver-Yap

"Glasgay! bucks the trend of flawless and self-sacrificing queers with two of its top films sticking to the facts, one presenting the real-life story of a male-to-female transgender kickboxer [Beautiful Boxer 3/5 stars], and the other documenting a female-to-male 'tranniboy' going through hormone treatment.

Travis Reeves' Funny Kinda Guy (3/5 stars) follows Scottish singer-songwriter Simon de Voil from first hormone injection to recording his last album before his female voice broke. Reeves, female-to-male transgendered himself, films his friend sympathetically, and occasionally breaks the boundaries between observer and participant. On one occasion de Voil's voice fails to hit a note at a gig, and Reeves chimes in. It's a contentious decision to make, and perhaps he doesn't push the more awkward questions far enough, but there is a strong sense of compassion towards a witty and clever guy struggling to come to terms with his own budding masculinity.

Reeves himself says of the film, 'Maybe another filmmaker would have just let him struggle in front of everybody, but I couldn't. I was determined to avoid the clinical, medical viewpoint on the subject that TV always seems to take, and show the human side of the transgender experience.' Funny Kinda Guy scores by simply telling it straight."

THE AGE (Melbourne) Saturday 12 March 2005

Lily Bragge

"Now in her seventh year as director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Lisa Daniel is still loving the challenge of putting together a showcase of cinema from around the world that entertains, challenges and provokes. Daniel's philosophy is to adhere to the festival's political mission as much as it is to engage people - and if she can do both, then all the better.

Since its humble, bare-bones beginnings, the festival has continued to grow in stature, reputation and finances. Now, armed with good sponsorship, Daniel and her fellow selection panel of eight are able to obtain much better quality and diverse films. She says it is easier now to support and give a place to films that don't have mass appeal but are still important to be shown.

Nominating documentaries Funny Kinda Guy and Naked Fame as the two highlights of today's program, she says both are fascinating. Funny Kinda Guy follows the story of transgendered Scottish singer-songwriter Simon de Voil's transition from female to male, while Naked Fame centres on Colton Ford, a gay porn star living under 24-hour webcam surveillance."

"DOCUMENTING OUR LIVES" SYDNEY STAR OBSERVER

8 September 2005

Ian Giould

"A shift from the political to the personal comes courtesy of documentaries such as Funny Kinda Guy, whose inclusion in queerDOC this year follows a flash of inspiration at the same festival four years ago.

'The film’s director Travis Reeves actually saw a film we showed at queerDOC in 2001 called Southern Comfort, which inspired him to make Funny Kinda Guy.' [festival programmer Megan] Carrigy said.
'Because it was low-budget filmmaking, he realised when the Funny Kinda Guy story came his way that he could actually achieve what he wanted.'

Funny Kinda Guy explores a similar theme in Scotland and Australia through transgender protagonist Simon. 'The main character Simon actually falls in love with an Australian girl from Brisbane,' Carrigy explained. 'Half of the film is about him moving to Australia and it’s quite and interesting film in the way they film Brisbane - you get a strong sense of a foreigner’s feel.'"

MELBOURNE STAR, 3 March 2005

Lesa Beel

"As I peruse the 15th annual Melbourne Queer Film Festival...the stand outs this year must be the two documentaries [sic], Beautiful Boxer and Funny Kinda Guy. The first, about the life of champion Myaythai kickboxer Prinya Charoenpol who fought to raise the cash for sex-change surgery, and the second, a painful journey taken by transgendered singer-songwriter Simon de Voil's transition from female to male."