Trantasia

Trantasia is a mainstream feature-film documentary chronicling 6 contestants in the first ever 'World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Pageant'. The pageant was created by Las Vegas producer Norbert Aleman and hosted by former Las Vegas showgirl Jahna Steele, a transgender entertainer who created quite a stir in the 90s when she was outed as having been born a man. Trantasia features personal profiles of the pageant contestants including Mimi Marks [1],Cassandra Cass, Maria Roman, Erica Andrews, Tiara Russell and Dorae Saunders. The film has been featured on the nationally syndicated television programs "The Tyra Banks Show", "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider" and was first broadcast on U.S. television on Showtime on February 14, 2008.

History

Trantasia is a behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling The World’s Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest [2] which was created by legendary Las Vegas producer Norbert Aleman. Ted Smith suggested to Norbert Aleman that the pageant would make great subject matter for a documentary. After filming the three-day pageant, director Jeremy Stanford travelled across the US interviewing six of the contestants and their families. These personal profiles create the heart of the documentary which was also edited by Stanford.

Entertainment Tonight and The Insider “have featured the making of the documentary and profiled the film’s transgendered stars in several separate stories” [3].]. Several other media outlets have covered the movie and pageant, including Maxim Magazine-Europe. The San Francisco Chronicle also featured an article, “Pretty Women” concerning the documentary [4] Daily Variety and the San Francisco Observer favorably reviewed the documentary [5]. The documentary has screened at several film festivals including Frameline in San Francisco, Outfest in Los Angeles, Neonfest in Las Vegas and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Appearing Contestants

Credited

Erica Andrews
Cassandra Cass
Mimi Marks
Maria Roman
Tiara Russell
Dorae Saunders
Cezanne
Alecia Cienega
Tara Willow Deasy
Ruby Kay
Kristina Marie
Marie
Delilah Paris
Victoria Parker
Tamalah Taylor
Susan B. Whitney
Nicole Xtravaganza
Vi

Not Credited

Danielle Hunter
Kayla
CoCo Van Cartier
Lana Blake
Lucy Marie Pereyra
Milissa Ravin
Montana Navarre
Venus Envy
Ireen Sue
Tiffany Pagie
Jurnee Abigail
Sonovia

External links

• http://trantasiathemovie.com/
• http://www.karla-ts.com/blog/data/150.html
• http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/2004/07/29/trannies.html
• http://et.tv.yahoo.com/celebrities/7424/ Entertainment Tonight coverage
• http://www.lasvegas-nv.com/norm/nj073004.htm
• http://www.jenburke.com/2004/12/worlds-most-beautiful-mtf-transsexual.html
• http://www.queensofdrag.com/features/2004tranny
• http://www.queensofdrag.com/features/mimi-2005/
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/22/NSGIBJHHTD1.DTL
• http://news.sfobserver.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=15b71cd7ddab45fb16b01d9446e7abc3
• Trantasia at the Internet Movie Database