Venus of Mars

Venus may look quite conspicuous; in daily life he/she is a respectably married, almost conventional figure. ‘Transgender’, Venus calls him/herself: not a man, nor a woman, but something in between. Venus was born in Duluth, Minnesota, as Steve Grandell. At a young age, he married his school friend Lynette. He was not happy, but it took him many years to have the courage to acknowledge the cause of his depression. Today, wearing woman’s clothing, Steve has long hair and, after hormone treatments, breasts. During music shows with his glamrock band All the Pretty Horses, his perplexing appearance comes in handy: all band members are half-man, half-woman in their own way, which makes for a spectacular stage performance. Not surprisingly, their fame extends far beyond their Minneapolis home-base. Filmmaker Emily Goldberg follows Venus and is given access to his personal archives full of home movies, artwork and photographs. The film focuses on the special relationship between Venus/Steve and his wife Lynette, who has supported him for twenty years in his quest for his own self-determined non-conformist life-style.