Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf ****

Director: Olivia Cappuccini

UK Distributor: Universal Pictures

If you’re tuned into LGBT+ media, trans model and activist Munroe Bergdorf is an absolute titan. If you’re not, she’s a figure probably more associated with her controversial statements, which almost led to being cancelled back in 2017. However you’ve been introduced to her, this documentary about her life and continuing work seeks to set the record straight and provide a human face to this indomitable force of nature.

Going back to her childhood, we explore both the domestic and political landscape she grew up in, as well as hearing about her relationships with family and friends. But the real story is about how she was forced into activism after becoming the first trans model to feature on the cover of British Vogue. She talks about how trans representation at the time she rose to fame felt optimistic, but she got caught in the changing tide as world politics shifted to the right.

There’s no doubt that Bergdorf’s comments on race in 2017 were misjudged and inflammatory, but in the years since her Facebook posts ignited a media furore, she has reinvented herself as a poised, intelligent and thoughtful woman, whose work for raising awareness about trans issues has rightfully seen her honoured by the UN. This film charts that reinvention, with interviews with friends and collaborators, as well as insightful commentary from the icon herself. And while this is decidedly a prestige piece, it manages to perfectly summarise the zeitgeist around her and depict why she has remained such an omnipresent force within the trans community even after the battering she received in the press.

Bergdorf’s personal struggles are interwoven with her professional ones, but you can’t help but wonder whether the star has fallen victim to the politics of the day, rather than the circumstances of her career. We watch her suffer an onslaught of transphobia across a slew of interviews and TV appearances and you can’t help but be impressed by the sheer gumption of her thick skin. This is a woman who has been forced to take a stand and this documentary lauds her for that work.

The film closes with Bergdorf meeting members of the public at a trans pride event. It’s only there that it hammers home just how much of an impact she has had on behalf of the trans community. She talks of how important representation is and this movie serves as exactly that, shining a light on a figure that we should all be more aware of. The current discourse in politics is so toxic nowadays that the MAGA-Right has become the loudest voice on trans issues. This is an attempt to redress that balance and position Munroe Bergdorf as the David to Donald Trump’s Goliath. And this film has left us totally here for it!

UK Release: 14th June 2025 on VOD, released by Universal Pictures

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