There is a particular kind of hush that falls over Cherry Grove in the last days of summer, when the ferries keep coming but the light turns a little more golden, a little more generous. This September, that hush will break into applause. On Saturday, September 12, somewhere between two and four in the afternoon, the historic Cherry Grove Theater will open its doors for the New York Transgender Film Festival’s second screening of the weekend, part of the Trans Celebration Weekend on Fire Island, and among the films unspooling on that beloved screen will be CALL ME MICKY, the twenty-two minute documentary short that has already become one of the most talked-about entries of the season.
Cherry Grove is not just any backdrop. It is the longest continuously running LGBTQ+ theater community in the United States, a wooden-walked, wave-lapped sanctuary where generations of queer and trans New Yorkers have gathered to see themselves reflected on screen. To bring CALL ME MICKY here, into a room that has held so much of this community’s history, feels less like a festival booking and more like a homecoming.
CALL ME MICKY tells the story of Micky Angelo Petrillo, a larger-than-life New Jersey native who transitioned at fifty-nine and, rather than treating that milestone as an ending, has spent every day since chasing what comes next. The film resists the well-worn arc of the transition documentary. It is far more interested in Petrillo’s second act: the open mics, the Pride stages, the late-night conversations with old friends, the sheer stubborn joy of a man who fought decades to become himself and now refuses to waste a single minute of it. Petrillo, also the author of the memoir Walking the Earth: First as a Woman, Then a Man, brings the same candor and humor to the screen that fills the pages of that book.
He is not carrying the film alone. Dominique Jackson, the actress, model, and activist whose portrayal of Elektra on FX’s POSE made her a defining voice for transgender visibility, serves as Executive Producer and steps in front of the camera herself, joining Petrillo for an intimate, unguarded conversation about identity and what it means to finally live in the open. Rounding out the film’s cast are Mark DeAlwis, Jackson Sturkey, Ike Avelli, Wendy Stuart, and Billy Hess, each adding their own texture to Petrillo’s world of chosen family and community. The film is directed by Andrew Rasmussen, co-founder of the New York City creative production company CARDINAL, who also produced alongside Stacey O’Reilly and Petrillo himself.
What makes CALL ME MICKY so exciting to watch heading into Cherry Grove is exactly what makes it so necessary right now: it insists that a trans life does not end at transition, it simply begins there, wide open and unwritten. Seeing it unfold on that particular screen, in that particular room, surrounded by a community that has spent decades building the very kind of space this film is about, promises to be one of the most moving hours of this year’s festival weekend. Anyone who can make it out to the Grove on September 12 should not miss it.
Watch the official trailer for “Call Me Micky” on Youtube here:
The official website for “Call Me Micky” may be found at https://www.callmemickyfilm.com
