NEW YORK — Lena Dunham remembers the exact moment she wanted to work with filmmaker Jason Benjamin.
She was shooting a first-season episode of her HBO comedy “Girls,” in which her character, Hannah Horvath, checks her vagina for STDs. Benjamin, a boom operator on the series, got an eyeful.
“Because of the angle we were shooting, I couldn’t wear underwear,” says Dunham. “Jason was right in front of where I was doing it, and he was so kind and respectful, and turned his head in a way that indicated respect, but not repulsion. I was like, ‘This is a great guy. I would do anything for him.’ ”
Four years later, that meant producing his documentary “Suited” (8 p.m. Monday on HBO), which explores the complexities of gender identity through the prism of Bindle & Keep, a Brooklyn tailor specializing in suits for transgender and gender-nonconforming clientele. The film documents the personal stories of people who have transitioned, are transitioning, or choose not to identify themselves by “he” or “she” pronouns, but share common desires for inclusivity and body confidence.
Benjamin first learned of Bindle & Keep from a 2013 New York Times profile of founders Rae Tutera and Daniel Friedman. “There was a description of them bringing a suit to someone who had never had clothing fit before, and that sounded like a really important moment that would be interesting and cinematic,” he says. He brought the idea to Dunham and her “Girls” co-producer Jenni Konner, who gave him enough money to produce a 10-minute short, which was soon picked up by HBO as a 90-minute feature.
Shot over two years, the documentary tracks customers as they’re fitted for custom suits, often in preparation for major life events. Derek, for example, is a trans man with unwanted curves on his body, who wishes to look as masculine as possible on his wedding day. Aidan is a transgender boy preparing for his bar mitzvah, while Jillian is a tall, middle-aged trans woman in search of a flattering skirt suit for when she argues an influential court case.
Initially, “I was chasing one specific moment where people got their suits for the first time, but as I got deeper into what the film might be made of, [I] realized that it’s easy to get stuck in a conversation about somebody’s trans-ness or the fact that they’re gender nonconforming,” Benjamin says. “That’s only one level of who they are as people, and it was more interesting for me to find out about all the other things happening in their lives. The tailor shop gave us a neat-and-tidy structure around which we can branch out into different stories.”
Dunham, who has long been an outspoken proponent of body positivity, understands the importance of well-fitting clothes in shaping one’s identity. She describes her own body as “a sample size on top, plus size on the bottom,” and says her experience getting fitted by Bindle & Keep was cathartic.
“I can’t walk into a store and buy a dress — I haven’t been able to do that since I was 12,” Dunham says. “So the experience of having someone who wasn’t trying to mold me to an existing prototype, but was instead dealing with my body as what it was, was super-powerful and had nothing to do with gender. It had to deal with finally feeling at home.”
That so many people in the LGBTQ community will also get to see themselves onscreen is crucial to Dunham, especially in the week following the massacre at an Orlando gay nightclub that killed 49.
“I’m happy that a movie that takes so much joy in identity, and the safety of identity, is coming out at this moment,” Dunham says. “I’m not saying it can heal any wounds, but I hope it’s a little gift to a community that’s received such a shocking blow. For that to happen at this moment in history, it’s just so painful. I’m thankful that we can share this work this week and at least hope to add a little bit of cement to the brick wall we’re trying to build around people’s identities.”
