There’s a scene in Neil Jordan’s 1992 film The Crying Game in which Stephen Rea’s character vomits copiously after discovering that his love interest is not exactly the woman he thought she was. You might not recall that exact moment, but transgender people sure do. There’s a kind of homage to that scene in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in which Jim Carrey goes way beyond vomit in response to a similar discovery. The latter is so over the top it could almost be a satire of stereotypical film reactions to transgender reveals, but it’s not quite.

Filmmaker Sam Feder has assembled those scenes and many others for the new Netflix documentary Disclosure, which charts the historical representation of transgender and non-binary characters in film and TV. Executive-produced by actress Laverne Cox (who is also interviewed in the film), Disclosure is entertaining, hard-hitting and often cringe-inducing. These often problematic screen depictions shaped not only general views of trans people, but how trans people feel about themselves.

There’s commentary from various entertainment figures including Chas Bono, Candis Cayne, Jen Richards, Yance Ford, Brian Michael Smith and Lilly Wachowski, who describe their own reactions to scenes such as the above-mentioned. Like any marginalized group, trans people always looked for themselves on screen, especially while growing up. According to several Disclosure interviewees, they embraced the few relatable characters presented, even if they or their storylines were questionable (Cayne’s character on “Nip/Tuck,” for example).

In researching the film, Feder took 100 oral histories from trans individuals who work in film and TV, and collected more than 1,000 clips from over 100 years of characters who traverse gender expectations. Though many aren’t technically transgender, especially in early films, these depictions added to many trans people’s overall self-identity.

Interestingly, notes historian Susan Stryker, trans and cinema grew up together, with gender-fluid characters featured in films such as D.W. Griffith’s Judith of Bethulea (1914). Griffith, also responsible for the racist Birth of a Nation, featured characters who were both cross-dressing and in blackface, making for a double-whammy of insult. Ditto A Florida Enchantment (1914), considered the first film to feature cross-dressing/gender-nonconformity. As discussed in Disclosure, a black man in a dress was seen as especially emasculating, feminine clothes neutralizing the inherent “threat” he posed.

Along with Cox, several others interviewed in Disclosure are trans people of color, who make up a particular segment of those represented in media and in trans American life in general. (Many trans people who are victims of violence, on screen and in real life, are women of color.)

Disclosure features many familiar TV and movie clips, including characters such as Flip Wilson’s iconic Geraldine, played for big laughs. Trans and cross-dressing characters were often the butt of jokes, says Cox. In general we have been trained to laugh at trans people.

When not comic, trans characters have often been represented as dangerous and psychopathic, as in Dressed to Kill and Silence of the Lambs. Several of those interviewed in Disclosure admit they enjoyed the films at the time and only later realized how they internalized the revulsion elicited by these characters. Also disturbing for many is the fact that even progressive TV shows like the ground-breaking “The L Word” included offensive depictions of trans characters.

Unlike trans women, trans men are largely missing in media, note several Disclosure participants. For many, the appearance of Reno on Jerry Springer’s 1998 “My Boyfriend is a Girl!” episode was a defining moment: their first time seeing a black transgender man. On talk shows in general, there has been a salacious focus on body parts and surgery, shown via interviews of Carmen Carrera and Cox by Oprah and Katie Couric, both of whom became more sensitive in later interactions.

An especially moving Disclosure participant is veteran actress Sandra Caldwell, who did not come out as trans until very late in her career, having worked for years in fear of being found out.

There are so many interesting details, issues and points of view, along with myriad clips, packed into 105 minutes, that Disclosure can feel overwhelming in scope. Yet it’s tightly edited, so that it all pulls together coherently.

A welcome and timely addition to Pride Month releases, Disclosure is available on Netflix starting Friday, June 19.

—Marina Zogbi