The Boy Who Was Born a Girl (2009)

Because We Have Each Other

Janet Sharrock has two children and Brent “Buddha” Barnes has three; the pair has a meet-cute at the local RSL, marry and unite their families, Brady Bunch style. Now grown up, Becky (famous for being one of only 80 people in the world with Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory), Jessica (a comedian living with depression), Brendan (who aspires to take over Buddha’s repair shop), and young Kylie and Dylan laugh, cry, contemplate existence and dream big with their parents, finding joy and stability in one another as they face immense change.

Lily: A Transgender Story

Filmed over five years, we follow Lily Jones, 20, as she transitions from male to female, leaves her seaside home for the city, undergoes gender reassignment surgery and finds love.

Dawn: A Charleston Legend

In 1968, Gordon Langley Hall claimed he was a woman misdiagnosed as male at birth because of a genital defect. To correct this, Gordon underwent one of the first sex reassignment surgeries in the United States. Her subsequent marriage to a black auto mechanic and the mysterious birth of their daughter Natasha sent Charleston, SC society into a fury and cast serious doubts on the truth behind Dawn’s story.

The Jump

Luis Rivera, the best Mexican high jumper of the history, seeks to inspire a generation by qualifying for the Olympic Games as he finishes his doctorate studies. Injuries threaten his dream while his younger brothers follow in his path and example.

Laerte-se

In this film, Laerte conjugates the body in the feminine, and scrutinizes concepts and prejudices. Not in search of an identity, but in search of un-identities. Laerte creates and sends creatures to face reality in the fictional world of comic strips as a vanguard of the self. And, on the streets, the one who becomes the fiction of a real character. Laerte, of all the bodies, and of none, complicates all binaries. In following Laerte, this documentary chooses to clothe the nudity beyond the skin we inhabit.

Casa Susanna

In the 50s and 60s, deep in the American countryside at the foot of the Catskills, a small wooden house with a barn behind it was home to the first clandestine network of cross-dressers. Diane and Kate are now 80 years old. At the time, they were men and part of this secret organization. Today, they relate this forgotten but essential chapter of the early days of trans-identity. It is a story full of noise and fury, rich in extraordinary characters, including the famous Susanna, who had the courage to create this refuge that came to be known as Casa Susanna.

Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf

Focuses on one of the most talked about and important issues of our time – how to find yourself and your truth. It follows model and transgender activist Munroe Bergdorf’s journey and provides hope for those facing similar challenges.

Tom Daley: Illegal to Be Me

Tom Daley visits the most homophobic countries in the Commonwealth to explore how gay athletes are facing extreme persecution. What can the Commonwealth Games do to help?

Stormé: Lady of the Jewel Box

“It ain’t easy…being green” is the favorite expression of Stormé DeLarverie, a woman whose life flouted prescriptions of gender and race. During the 1950s and '60s she toured the black theater circuit as a mistress of ceremonies and the sole male impersonator of the legendary Jewel Box Revue, America’s first integrated female impersonation show and forerunner of La Cage aux Folles.

Edhi Alice: REVERSE

Edhi and Alice intimately follows two transitioning women, Edhi and Alice, as they explore the fluidity of their gender identity, in the face of the the disapproving gaze of South Korean society.

Re-Births

A documentary film depicting five intimate portraits of migrants who fled their country of origin to seek refuge in France and find a space of freedom where they can fully experience their sexuality and their sexual identity: Giovanna, woman transgender of Colombian origin, Roman, Russian transgender man, Cate, Ugandan lesbian mother, Yi Chen, young Chinese gay man…

The Transformation

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.

Who I Am

'Who I Am' follows a transgender teen who is also autistic. Research shows that people who are neurodivergent are more likely to be trans or gender diverse, but little is known about why. The story is told through observational moments, intimate reflections from the whole family, and Aether’s own original animated characters, The Fallens, coming to life.

Glee: The Concert Movie

A concert documentary shot during the Glee Live! In Concert! summer 2011 tour, featuring song performances and fans' life stories and how the show influenced them.

The Giacomettis

The rugged Swiss mountain valley of Bregaglia has produced an entire dynasty of artists: the Giacomettis. Alberto revolutionised the art world with his slender sculptures. Before him, his father was an Impressionist of the first hour. What makes this valley the birthplace of so many artists?

The Mies van der Rohes – A Female Family Saga

An epic family saga told by the women around the famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

High Heels Revolution!

From a young age, Natsuki knew she was a girl despite her sex assigned at birth. Against the backdrop of conservative Japanese society, this poignant docudrama tells her remarkable story of gender transition. Reflecting on her high school years, Natsuki interviews the supportive friends and family who supported her choices – and also confronts the people those who oppressed her freedom. Tracing Natsumi’s story to the present, this compelling portrait of gender identity in contemporary Japan offers insights of a layered experience in a complex society.

Always Amber

Amber belongs to a queer generation which no longer wants society to dictate their identity. The teenagers proudly inhabit a spectrum of fluid identities and master their first loves and losses.

Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

An intimate portrait of Matthew Shepard, the gay young man murdered in one of the most notorious hate crimes in U.S. history. Framed through a personal lens, it's the story of loss, love, and courage in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Meine alles außer gewöhnliche Familie

It is normal for 15-year-old Linn to have two mothers. But when she finds out that there are still numerous siblings, she realizes that she is part of an extraordinary extended family. Her father Eike not only had an appointment with Linn's mothers to donate sperm, Petra and Anny also have three children with him. A film crew followed this rainbow family for twelve years.

Voltrans

The documentary features the journey of the Voltrans initiative, a solidarity platform for trans men in Turkey.

The Stroll

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.

Circus Krone - Manege mit Geschichte

It is considered the largest traveling circus in Europe and is one of the oldest in Germany: Circus Krone celebrated its 100th anniversary a few years ago. However, the history of the family business actually began back in 1870 - when the founding couple toured the fairgrounds. The small animal show became a dazzling entertainment giant.

Love Alone Can't Make a Child

Love Alone Can’t Make a Child chronicles the love story and emotional odyssey of Maria and Christiane who, for over a decade, have been trying to fulfil their desire of giving birth to a child of their own. The director, a childhood friend of Maria, lovingly narrates the couple's journey, showcasing their resilience in the face of ever-increasing challenges, and the intricate dynamics of a relationship under tremendous strain. More than anything else, the film continually pursues what love truly means in a long-term romantic relationship.

Kelet

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.

This Is What Love in Action Looks Like

In the summer of 2005 a 16yo Memphis, TN wrote on his MySpace blog about his parents sending him to a "Fundamentalist Christian" program that strives to turn gay teens straight. This documentary follows the inspirational story of this teens local community standing up for their friend with daily protests at the facility in what would become an international news story. The documentary features several former clients of the organization who tell their personal stories about the time they spent within the programs walls.

The City of Pirates

A film director faces a complex situation in the production of his new film: Laerte, the protagonist of the story, begins to renegade her former characters, the Pirates of the Tietê. Lost in this situation and determined to be faithful to his whims after seeing the approach of death, the director decides to tell his drama mixing his persona with the story, creating a chaotic labyrinth between fiction and real life.

The Dads

On a fishing trip with Matthew Shepard's father, five disparate dads discuss their love, hopes and fears for their trans kids in this short documentary.

Beautiful Something Left Behind

In New Jersey, the Good Grief community focuses on a holistic way of dealing with grief, where children can give in to rage in ‘the volcano room,' and say goodbye to a dying teddy bear patient in ‘the hospital room.' Over the course of a year, we follow the weekly meetings and get close to Kimmy, Nicky, Peter, Nora, Nolan, and Mikayla and their close companion: grief. It is sometimes heartbreaking, but also humorous, to experience the questions about life and death through their open and curious minds. Grief is high and heavy as a mountain, but it helps you understand what has happened, and that death is irreversible.

We Are Perfect

In this documentary, a group of trans and nonbinary actors share common experiences while pursuing a life-changing role for the film "Fanfic".

A Long Way From Heaven: The Rainbow Y Story

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.

Brianna: A Mother's Story

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.

Framing Agnes

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.

No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care

Six young people discuss the "gender affirming" medical care they received for gender dysphoria and how they subsequently came to believe this was the wrong treatment.

Bambi

Bambi was born Jean-Pierre Pruvot in a tiny Algerian village in 1935. Even as a child, she refused to meet the expectations of her extended family, choosing instead to find a way to become the woman she always knew herself to be. A Cabaret Carrousel de Paris performance in Algiers in the 1950s proved to be all the encouragement she needed to emigrate to the French capital, assume the stage name of ‘Bambi’ and lead the life she longed for on the music-hall stages.

Hookers on Davie

Filmmakers Holly Dale and Janis Cole explore the culture of Davie Street, located in the underbelly of Vancouver, where dozens of prostitutes work and live every day. Surprisingly, they find that the sex trade there is stable and largely non-violent, and that the women who work on Davie Street meet daily to discuss safety and health issues and don't use pimps. The film also includes candid interviews with the prostitutes and footage of negotiations with potential clients.

Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis

Andy Warhol described Jackie Curtis as “A pioneer without a frontier.” In this biographical documentary, Curtis’s co-workers and friends speak of her work and her influence, along with clips from Curtis’s Warhol films as well as never-before-seen footage from her stage shows.

Call Me Marianna

Her ex-wife won’t meet her. Her daughter rejects her. Her mother still calls her “son.” As Marianna transitions from male to female, she is abandoned by her loved ones, alone in a world unwilling to accept her true self. This multi-award-winning documentary is an intensely sympathetic and powerful account of one individual’s struggle to gain acceptance—even in the midst of profound physical hardship.

My Transparent Life

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.

Our Dad, Danielle

The extraordinary story of a world-renowned patent attorney in Sugar Land, Texas who, at 57, came out as a trans woman and is now navigating LGBTQ+ issues and fighting for trans rights in the vortex of Texas conservatism, as she and her family challenge the idea of what modern love looks like.

Transhood

Filmed over five years in Kansas City, this documentary follows four transgender kids – beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 – as they redefine “coming of age.” These kids and their families show us the intimate realities of how gender is re-shaping the family next door in a unique and unprecedented chronicle of growing up transgender in the heartland.

Les Invisibles

Several elderly homosexual men and women speak frankly about their pioneering lives, their fearless decision to live openly in France at a time when society rejected them.

What Is a Woman?

Matt Walsh's controversial doc challenges radical gender ideology through provocative interviews and humor.

All in My Family

After starting a family of his very own in the United States, a gay filmmaker documents his loving, traditional Chinese family's process of acceptance.

Morgana

Plot unavailable

Pronouns in Bio

Through a collection of video diary entries spanning more than a year, Pronouns in Bio delivers an offbeat and charming reflection on transness and identity. Part documentary, part video essay and part musical, the film follows director and star Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner, a recently out transgender, autistic woman, as she navigates the first year of her transition. Note: Lucy uses the name Frankie during the film but has since started using the name Lucy.

Dear Brother

Markus Becker is hit by a car, dragged along, his head bashed on a curb and he falls into a coma. The doctors don’t believe that the 45-year-old will survive the next five to ten days. His father makes preparations for the funeral. Markus’ brother Michael refuses to accept this fate and begins an extraordinary battle. In his brother’s apartment he seals Markus’ clothes to preserve the smell. He records the neighbors’ voices. Every day, Michael exposes his brother to things that are familiar and films everything that is part of Markus’ life with a DV camera. He wants to keep him in his world and to bring this world to his bedside. He documents every step of Markus’ development, risking his own life in the process, wishing that his brother will one day regain the ability to lead a normal life. This full-length documentary accompanies Michael Becker for 10 years on his unwavering and creative mission to bring his brother Markus back to life.

Transgender Nuclear Suicide Sojourner

Lies can kill. Transgender Nuclear Suicide Sojourner is an exploration of propaganda, lies, and the overwhelming urge to end it all.

Beautiful Darling

James Rasin's documentary “Beautiful Darling” honors American Transgender actress and best-known Warhol Superstar, Candy Darling, and her all-too-brief life and career, with a combination of current and vintage interview material, rarely seen archival photos and footage, and extracts from Darling's movies.

Showgirls of Pakistan

Enter the universe of three mujra dancers in Pakistan as they dodge state censorship and violence to vie for stardom.

Glee: Keep on Believin'

A Biography documentary going behind the scenes of the hit show 'Glee,' featuring interviews with creators and a handful of cast members as well as never-before-told stories from its conceptual beginning through the casting process.

Enigma

Two legends contested their identities as women in the court of public opinion: April Ashley, who was immortalized as a trailblazer by embracing her transgender history; and Amanda Lear, who has consciously denied and obfuscated her history for decades. Their divergent paths reveal disparate but intertwined legacies.

Trans

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.

Marilyn, Her Final Secret

Thanks to DNA, this documentary establishes the identity of Marilyn's biological father, thus revealing her new paternal family, 60 years after the icon's death.

A Family

Award-winning French writer Christine Angot goes on a business trip to Strasbourg where her father lived before dying several years ago. It is the city where she met him for the first time at the age of 13, and where he sexually abused her over the following years. His wife and children still live there. Angot takes a camera and knocks on the doors of her family to push them to clarify their attitudes to her father’s crime that stretched over so many years. A cinematographic journey that challenges social norms and family perspectives in dealing with incest.

La memoria inmortal

Plot unavailable

Il était une fois... les Contes pour tous

A nostalgic deep dive into the world of Rock Demers’ popular children’s film series.

Documentary: Moving

Amateur documentary film about the process of moving. A boy, Jakub, decides to make a documentary himself after a tour of one of the apartments. The documentary shows the whole story of how he, his parents and younger brother move to a bigger apartment. The result is an emotional rollercoaster that deals not only with the move, but also with the family itself.

Transition

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.

My Uncle Manolo

Focused on the experiences of Manuel "Manolo" Díaz Caballero, who was a local police officer in Malaga for more than 30 years, his memories of those years are the subject of this documentary.

Hold on Tight

A short documentary exploring the ways LGBT couples show affection, and how small interactions like holding hands in public can carry, not only huge personal significance, but also the power to create social change.

The Contestant

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.

Inocentes

In a time marked by longing and uncertainty, at the beginning of a social isolation, two friends disappear. The pandemic becomes a backdrop for the loss of innocence and the rescue of long-lost things. Ingenuous is like a farewell gift from the only link that united these two missing figures; two strangers who get lost, or maybe, just maybe, just met.