| Paper Dolls (Bubot Niyar) |
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|---|---|
Israeli-release poster |
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| Directed by | Tomer Heymann |
| Produced by | Claudia Levin Stanley Buchthal Tomer Heymann |
| Written by | Tomer Heymann |
| Starring | see Participants |
| Music by | Eli Soorani |
| Cinematography | Itai Raziel |
| Editing by | Lavi Ben Gal |
| Distributed by | Strand Releasing |
| Release date(s) | February 9, 2006 (Berlinale) September 6, 2006 (United States) October 26, 2006 (Israel) |
| Running time | 80 minutes |
| Country | Israel Switzerland United States |
| Language | Hebrew Tagalog English |
| Box office | $36,089[1] |
Paper Dolls (Hebrew: בובות נייר, Bubot Niyar) is a 2006 documentary by Israeli director Tomer Heymann, which follows the lives of transgender migrant workers from the Philippines who also perform as drag queens during their spare time. It also delves into the lives of societal outcasts who search for freedom and acceptance.[2]
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The documentary followed five Filipino transsexuals, each in different stage of gender transition and often referred to by their feminine names, who have emigrated to Israel to work as health care providers for elderly, Orthodox Jewish men. On their nights off, they perform in Tel Aviv nightclubs as a drag group called "Paper Dolls".[2] They are among 300,000 foreign immigrants who came to Israel in the wake of the Second Intifada to fill lowly jobs that had been handled by Palestinians. Their status is precarious because they cannot file for citizenship and their visas are revoked if they lose their jobs.[3] Although the task of taking care of the elderly is not easy, the liberal atmosphere of their adopted country has allowed the Paper Dolls to be free despite being viewed as outsiders.[4]
A notable angle on the documentary is the relationship between Sally and her elderly ward Chaim, who lost his voice due to throat cancer. He urges her to learn Hebrew by having her recite a poem written by Yehuda Amichai, while he basks in Sally's warmth and wit.[3] In contrast, when the Paper Dolls were arranged for an audition at TLV—the largest nightclub in Tel Aviv—the booker instead relegated them as geishas. They would bow by the entrance and were described by the booker, as well as other drag queens, as "unprofessional" and "fit only for a bus stop".[5][6]
The documentary, shot for a span of five years and 320 hours of videotape, was distilled from a six-part Israeli TV feature produced by Claudius Films, Ltd., Heymann Brothers Films, and Switzerland-based LM Media GmbH, in association with The Film Sales Company, through the research of Levin.[7][8] Andrew Harwitz and Maja Hoffman were its associate and executive producers respectively. Additional cinematography were done by Levin, Tomer Heymann, Daniel Miran, and Gonen Glazer. Asaf Billet provided the graphic design.[2] Alex Claudius served as the interviewer of the participants.[4]
Paper Dolls was shown around the film festival circuit, first in Berlin International Film Festival on February 9, 2006, then debuted in the United States at SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival on June 15 that same year.[9][10] Its US theatrical premiere was held on September 6, 2006, in New York City's Film Forum.[11] The documentary was also commercially released in Switzerland, 15 US states, and Tel Aviv.[12]
Before its second release in the Philippines at the 2007 Israeli Film Festival, Paper Dolls was given an "X" rating by the country's Movie and Television Review and Classification Board, which would make it "unfit for public viewing" despite already being shown in a public cinema in Makati City during the 2006 Cinemanila International Film Festival.[13][14] The organizers of the Israeli Film Festival decided the film be shown in various universities around Metro Manila.[13] The Region 1 DVD of Paper Dolls was released on March 13, 2007.[15]
Film critics have mostly-positive reviews on the documentary, with a 71% grade from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and 72% from Metacritic.[16][17] Joshua Rothkopf of Time Out New York rated the documentary with 4 stars, calling it "strange and sad".[18] Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe gave Paper Dolls 3½ out of 4 stars, lauding that the documentary does not center on drag culture but on "the discrepancy between the (subjects') self-image and their neighbors' failure to see them as more than freaks and foreigners".[6] Ken Fox of TV Guide rated the documentary a 3 out of 4 stars, commenting that although "Heymann has a flair for drama and a way of making every scene he appears in all about him... the Paper Dolls themselves are funny and touching and their plight is relevant to any discussion about foreign workers."[19] A.O. Scott of The New York Times stated that Paper Dolls "seeks to illuminate a subculture without allowing its curiosity to become exploitative or prurient".[3] Michael Booth of The Denver Post gave it a 2½ star-rating out of 4, saying that the documentary underscores the subjects' role as "eternal outsiders".[20] David Noh of Film Journal International stated that "despite Heymann's often clumsy technique and sometimes baldly opportunistic approach, a real human story emerges", and that the audience "sincerely root for these unlikely, uncomely souls".[5] Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times writes that Heymann does not only bring an engaging poignancy and depth in Paper Dolls, but also a powerful universality.[21]
Meanwhile, Russell Edwards of Variety magazine wrote that Paper Dolls "mostly fails to transcend its ramshackle structure or penetrate the inner-lives of its subjects".[7] Ed Gonzales of Slant Magazine gave 2 out of 4 stars, while lamenting that the documentary "only skims the surface of the Paper Dolls' personal lives, barely tapping into the dreams that motivate them on a daily basis".[22]
Paper Dolls won three awards from independent juries in 2006 Berlin International Film Festival: Panorama Audience Award for a Feature Film; the Manfred-Salzgeber Prize; and the Siegessäule Reader's Jury Award.[2][23] The documentary also received Best Cinematography and Best Music at Israeli Documentary Film Forum in 2006.[24] That same year, it received the Audience Award at Pink Apple Film Festival held in Zurich, Switzerland, as well as the International Audience Award at Los Angeles Film Festival, and Best Documentary at Cinemanila International Film Festival held in Manila, Philippines.[25][26][27] Paper Dolls also received the International Jury and the Audience Awards for a Documentary at 2007 Identities Queer Film Festival in Vienna, Austria, as well as the Audience Award for Best Documentary at 22nd Turin International GLBT Film Festival that same year.[28][29]
Chiqui, Giorgio, and Jan, went to London. Chiqui became a head nurse at a local hospital, while Giorgio and Jan continued to provide health care for elderly Jewish men. The three formed "Paper Dolls from Israel" and staged their performances in Filipino nightclubs. Meanwhile, Cheska was deported to the Philippines and managed a bar with her mother.
After Chaim's death, Sally returned to the Philippines to take care of her mother,[2][13] but eventually went to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and worked as a hairdresser. On November 19, 2007, just 20 days after arriving in UAE, she was found dead on a pavement near a local mall.[30] The reason for her death is still unknown, but her family claimed that an employee at Department of Foreign Affairs asked them if Sally was "the one who got bashed in the head".[31] Tomer Heymann was informed of Sally's death during the Israeli Film Fest held in Manila, wherein the proceeds of the screening—as well as his own allowance—were given to Sally's family in Imus, Cavite.[8][13][32]