Alumni Spotlight
like Home Alone, Terminator 2, Unforgiven, Basic Instinct, and Ghostbusters. “After Total Recall,” Arnold Schwarzenegger had it put in his contract that I was to cut the trailer to any movie he did at any studio,” says Arnold. “After Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood had a similar clause in his contract at Warner’s.” In 2001, Arnold sold the business, bought a ranch in Montana, and returned to one of his first loves—documentary filmmaking. The O Tapes, which openly explores female sexuality, aired on Showtime and the Movie Channel, and was embraced by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). It was through AASECT that Arnold met Dr. Christine McGinn, one of the nation’s leading gender reassignment surgeons, and one of only two who is,
herself, transgender. McGinn had been approached by MSNBC to tell her story. Wary of even well-meaning networks whom she claims “can’t resist bringing a little circus into any discussion of transgender issues,” she turned to Arnold to make a much-needed film about the transgender experience. That film is called TRANS; it was released in March 2012. “It is a film,” notes Arnold, “of which I am truly proud. It has opened hearts and minds across America for a community that is currently under siege and that I believe to be the last frontier in civil rights.” TRANS has been shown in more than 52 film festivals worldwide, winning prizes at many of them, including Best Documentary and Best Director. The film tells “stories of confusion and courage, excitement, and emotion” as brave
individuals journey through “gender dysphoria” and transition. Featured in the film is Dr. McGinn, once a lieutenant commander and a flight surgeon for the Navy and for several NASA space missions. Also featured are teenagers, older men, and women who were married with families before finally coming out, and a seven-year-old child born male, now living as a female. “If you know any people who are, or may be, trans or who have a family member or loved one struggling with their gender identity,” says Arnold, “I believe they will thank you for turning them on to this film.” j
He began work with Microsoft in 1992 after years teaching at the University of Arizona and consulting with Los Alamos National Laboratory, the White Sands Army Missile Range, and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. His job at Microsoft involved the display and editing of mathematical text in Microsoft Word. “The first half of my career was laser physics, developing theories on how lasers work and how to use the laser,” he says. “My efforts were devoted to trying to understand the interaction of light with matter and teaching that to students. “[But] I was always a computer nut. I got into computers before any computer science departments existed,” Sargent says. “Programming itself is a fabulous game. You can get seriously hooked on it. You can go in at the beginning of the day, and…the time just goes by. It’s a thing where you sort of wake up a few hours later—it doesn’t seem to be work.”
That’s how he feels about hiking as well. He chose to work at the University of Arizona in part because there were mountains nearby to explore. His love of climbing developed when he would visit his grandmother in Maine. “I developed a real love of big trees,” he says. “I feel there’s something missing if I’m not in a mountainous area.” That love led him and his wife to Everest, though he didn’t attempt the summit. It was enough to climb to 18,500 feet—1,000 feet above base camp—to see the world spread out below him. He’s not done climbing, though. He still has Mount Kilimanjaro in his sights. “To some degree, I am sort of driven,” he admits. “It’s just fun to do things rather than sit around. These mountains are wonderful, and they keep you in shape.” And, for Sargent, mathematics does exactly that. j
—Debra Meyers
TRANS is available on iTunes and Amazon Prime. You can learn more and view the trailer at transthemovie.com.
—Sargent, continued from page 7
has been a passion for Sargent since the early computing eras of the 1970s. “It’s always fun to try to explain it to family members,” Sargent says. “It’s fun to find the areas that are approachable…to take some aspect of computing and explain it in a way that someone can understand.” Sargent even computerized his home in the 1970s, much to the amusement of his neighbors. His children would type in a code to unlock the door, dispensing with the need for a key. Pushing his limits, both mental and physical, keeps Sargent active, he says. That’s where mountain climbing and hiking come in. These days, you’re as likely to find him scaling the peaks around his home in Tucson, Arizona, and those near Seattle, Washington. He divides his time between the two locales, thanks to his work both for Microsoft and for the University of Arizona, where he is an emeritus professor and does occasional work with other professors.
—Bonnie Blackburn-Penhollow ’84
Taft Bulletin / Winter 2016
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