In the second installment of book & film group and in collaboration with Exeter Picturehouse, we invited Uni of Exeter's staff LGBT+ group and the Trans & Non Binary Cafe to curate the pairing in honour of LGBTQ+ History month. They chose Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) and Grace Lavery’s Please Miss. Read the book, watch the film, and join us for a discussion in the Exeter Picturehouse bar afterwards.
The Book
Please Miss is a funny, warm, sexy and painful memoir of gender transition and recovery from addiction. A dance across genres, Please Miss is unlike anything you’ve read before. As Grace fumbles toward a new identity, she tries on dozens of different voices, creating a coat of many colours. The result is dazzling and unforgettable. How could her story be straightforward when she is anything but?
The Film
Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a traumatic personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an “internationally ignored” but divinely talented rock diva. Based on the trailblazing musical from writer–director–star John Cameron Mitchell and composer lyricist Stephen Trask , Hedwig and the Angry Inch tells Hedwig’s life through her music, an eclectic assortment of original punk anthems and power ballads a tribute to the transcendent power of rock and roll.