After discovering case files from the UCLA gender clinic from the 1950s, a group of trans actors confronts the legacy of young trans women being forced to choose between honesty and access.
Agnes
Georgia
Barbara
Henry
Denny
Jimmy
Self
Connection | Isolation presents eight intimate portraits of trans and post-gender individuals navigating the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst moments of connection and isolation, these participants reveal a deepening awareness of gender, their bodies, and trans community. Created by an all trans and queer crew, this hybrid documentary film interlaces portraits with reenactments, integrating archival material documenting what so many experienced and many still do.
Brianna: A Mother's Story - Esther Ghey tells the powerful and emotional true story of her daughter Brianna, a sixteen year old trans girl who was groomed by a murder obsessed classmate.
Kelet is a twentysomething black trans woman, whose greatest dream is to be on the cover of Vogue magazine. For the Finnish-born and Manchester-raised Kelet, such models as Naomi Campbell and Iman served as role models giving her strength – and during the darkest times, kept her alive. After coming out, then 19-year-old Kelet was cut off from her family and she moved back to Finland on her own.
The true story of the students of Brigham Young University's queer underground, as they lit the school's iconic "Y" in rainbow colors. But, A Long Way From Heaven does a lot more than tell the story of the Rainbow Y. It outlines the history of queer treatment at BYU - the good (where it exists), the bad, and the very, very ugly. The film combines new, original footage with a huge variety of historical images, videos, newspaper articles, and other mixed media from every conceivable source to tell the story of BYU's queer students, and the bravery and risks they constantly take to make their voices heard.
Mona is a 22 year old trans girl from a small village in France. She puts needles attached to peacock feathers in her skin, under bright lights, late at night. She bleeds, half naked, in front of small crowds of people. Sometimes they faint whilst watching her. Why would she do this? How did she learn to do it? And why would someone want to watch?
The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.
A truly major work, I Don’t Know observes the relationship between a lesbian and a transgender person who prefers to be identified somewhere in between male and female, in an expression of personal ambiguity suggested by the film’s title. This nonfiction film – an unusual, partly staged work of semi-verité – is the first of Spheeris’s films to fully embrace what would become her characteristic documentary style: probing, intimate, uncompromising. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2014.
A short documentary chronicling the personal lives and narratives of Thai "ladyboys," who are born men but present themselves as women, living openly in Thai society. The film interviews ladyboys from all walks of life-- performers, filmmakers, activists-- to learn what it's like to live in a society with visible gender fluidity, and to explore if Thailand is really as open to and accepting of sexual diversity as it seems.
A trans paranormal investigator and their team search for the connection between the queer and the strange as they explore the mysterious and magical world of the rural south.
After naturally conceiving a child during the COVID-19 pandemic, trans-centered couple Isis and Lourenzo begin a journey across Brazil in search of respectful and specialized prenatal care, while fighting for their family's rights in what kills the most trans people in the world.
A portrait of an unforgettable transgender schoolteacher in Herat, Afghanistan, who shines even with the prospect of the Taliban’s return.
Argenis, Yanvaldo, Carlos, Eduardo and Javier have something in common: they will compete in the Miss Gay Venezuela, a trans beauty contest where the man who most resembles a “Miss” wins. For several weeks, we follow them in their preparations for the final night of the contest, seeing how that illusion is built: that of being a beauty queen for one night. The event is the excuse and the ideal setting to find ourselves with wishes, fantasies and the search for a dream come true. They look for the beautiful and feminine to achieve a desire: to be admired and recognized as the most beautiful trans in the contest.
Two British families discuss the challenges they face raising children who identify as a gender different from the one they were assigned at birth.
Ricardo was once Sara, a homeless HIV positive transvestite, living in the underbelly of Manhattan. Today he is a churchgoing, married man, "saved" by a Dallas ministry. He has renounced his homosexuality, but is his conversion complete? Susana Aiken and Carlos Aparicio offer an intimate look at Ricardo's transformation.
Australian filmmaker Jordan Bryon has been living and working as a journalist and filmmaker in Afghanistan for more than six years. After the departure of US forces, he stays to document Afghan life under the male-centric Taliban leadership. With his colleague, Teddy, he heads to a Taliban stronghold in the north-west of the country, shortly after he started transitioning. If the Taliban knew he was trans, they would likely kill him. It’s a chaotic time, for the country and for Jordan, as he navigates his transformation and looks to the future.
A trans Vietnamese woman's deadname being repeated over and over again.
In Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, the Vida/Sida Cacica Pageant brings together members of the Puerto Rican community to celebrate its transgender participants. I Am The Queen follows Bianca, Julissa and Jolizza as they prepare for the pageant under the guidance of Ginger Valdez, an experienced transgender from the neighborhood. These trans women share stories of their transition, their relatives’ varying reactions, and how they find support from within the community. Family dynamics, cultural heritage, and personal identity all play a part in how the contestants face the daily struggle that comes from being true to themselves.
My Transparent Life chronicles the journey of one trans man, one trans woman and a trans couple as transition from the sex they were born with to the sex they identify with.
"After a period in intensive care, Britney sets out on a road trip where time becomes entangled. Along the journey, she seeks to understand her relationship with people, with affection, and with her own body."
Trans is a 1982 Venezuelan documentary short film that offers an intimate look into the lives of a group of trans women and drag performers in Caracas, exploring their experiences in a society marked by transphobia and homophobia. Through interviews and performances, the documentary highlights the resilience and dignity of these women in the face of widespread discrimination and violence. Premiering at the Venezuelan National Cinematheque in 1982, Trans is considered a pioneering work in the representation of the trans community in Latin American cinema.
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