International Transgender Day of Visibility takes place every year on March 31 to celebrate trans and gender-diverse people, and raise awareness on systemic anti-trans discrimination.
Grade 5-7: Uplifting and supporting trans and gender-diverse people
Grade 8-10: Diverse cultural experiences of gender diversity
Grade 11-12: Complex representations of trans experiences by trans people
We recommend watching 1 short film per day and debriefing as a group using our associated Lesson Plans. At the end of the week, ask students to reflect on their favourite film and how they can make their school more welcoming for people of all gender identities and expressions!
Grades 5-7
The Litle Piratemaid (6 min)
Marooned in a mermaid’s lagoon, a young pirate makes an unlikely friendship and discovers there’s more than one way to sail the seven seas
In this documentary, eleven-year-old Ho’onani dreams of leading the boys hula troupe at her Honolulu school with the support of her teacher, a proud Native Hawaiian māhū, or transgender woman.
Long ago, four extraordinary individuals of dual male and female spirit brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii. The name of their leader was Kapaemahu.
Schuyler Bailar is a decorated swimmer who was recruited to Harvard as a female athlete and transitioned while continuing to compete and advocate for trans inclusion.
If you made use of these resources, we would love to hear how your lessons went and any other feedback! Get in touch with us at info@outinschools.com.
November 13-19 marks Transgender Week of Awareness which leads into the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20. During this time, we are called to bring attention to issues faced by transgender and gender diverse communities. Awareness is one aspect which can bring us closer to liberation, but it cannot be without action and a commitment to end the violence against Two Spirit, Transgender, and gender diverse people.
This Transgender Day of Remembrance, Out In Schools invites educators and students to reflect on the ways which transgender, nonbinary, Two Spirit and otherwise gender diverse people experience the world, and how you, as allies, might come together to create safer and more celebratory spaces for gender diversity in your school and community. Educators can access our Film Catalogue to share short films in educational settings.
From Danny Lybbert (he/they), Out In Schools Program Manager:
When I started as a facilitator with Out In Schools back in 2016, our presentations were primarily focused on building awareness of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community; the majority of our time was spent on defining terms and explaining how various identities exist across spectrums. Our approach was based on the knowledge that hate often stems from ignorance and the assumption that awareness would therefore decrease hate. And, for many years, this assumption was correct; in 2018, SARAVYC found that students at schools who received an Out In Schools presentation experienced lower levels of harassment, discrimination, and exclusion.
However, the landscape has changed, due in part to the rise of polarizing social media algorithms on apps like Tiktok, Instagram and Twitter, and an increase in mis/disinformation campaigns. Where once, visibility helped our cause, it now can also have the opposite effect; trans visibility is a double edged sword which sometimes gives us access, and increasingly, makes us targets of hate.
Awareness is a necessary first step in creating social change and moving society towards acceptance, but it can’t stop there. Trans equality and trans liberation are essential in the fight for gender equality and equity – they are synonymous with supporting people of all genders to express themselves freely. For generations, the existence of gender diversity has been actively suppressed, largely by the forces of colonization and white supremacy. The resurgence of these identities is critical to creating communities where all of us can thrive.
When the Out In Schools team travels to schools throughout the various communities in British Columbia, the majority of students know what basic terms like queer and trans mean, but language and terminology don’t build empathy – stories do.
How do we tell our stories when people are not willing to listen?
We need you. We need you to help share our stories.
Out In Schools uses personal narrative and short films as a way to engage our audiences in developing a deeper understanding of who we are and how to support us.
Thanks to the transgender ancestors and activists who came before me, I have access to the language I need to understand myself.
Effective awareness showcases both our struggles and our celebrations, and can move people to support us in our right to exist.
Positive and plentiful narratives can help trans folks have hope for the future. Affirming and authentic representation of our stories can help humanize our experiences, and build empathy and understanding.
Awareness is where our work begins, not where it ends.
To our cisgender allies: you can use your privilege to offset our vulnerability; when my cisgender friends and colleagues take on the work of introducing and explaining pronouns at meetings, correcting gender mistakes, or ensuring that I can safely access a bathroom, it makes it easier for me to exist.
I have been so heartened by the work of educators across BC, many of them cisgender allies, shaping school environments where trans students feel valued and protected. These allies continue to advocate for inclusive policies in the face of direct backlash, holding firm to the belief that all youth deserve a safe, supportive learning environment where they can be their authentic selves.
This Transgender Day of Remembrance, we encourage you to keep the learning alive and ongoing with your students. Seek out stories, check out our Film Catalogue, and explore the resources below.
If you’re an educator, consider using our curated film playlists to start conversations and explore the topic of gender identity in your classroom. You can also find additional resources below.
If you made use of these resources, we would love to hear how your lessons went and any other feedback! Get in touch with us at info@outinschools.com.
For Black History Month, Out In Schools has curated a playlist of films that showcase stories at the intersection of Black and 2SLGBTQIA+ identity. They include a short documentary EQ about local DJ Orene Askew (aka DJ O Show) of the Squamish Nation, a narrative short Anemoneabout a non-binary teen Anemio exploring gender amidst their Christian immigrant family, and a new short documentary MnM about chosen siblings and performers Mermaid and Milan Garçon (MnM) in the New York ballroom scene.
This documentary follows Orene Askew, also known as DJ O Show, a local Two Spirit DJ and instructor from the Squamish nation, as she shares the importance of representation, being proud of where you come from, and celebrating your unique differences.
Non-binary teen Anemio finds respite from her conservative Christian family at the marine livestock shop where they work, comforted by the anemone and hermaphroditic marine creatures.
If you made use of these resources, we would love to hear how your lessons went and any other feedback! Get in touch with us at info@outinschools.com.
Every year, our community and allies observe Transgender Awareness Week from November 13-19, culminating in Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20 which honours the memory of those who lost their lives due to transphobic violence. As we see a continued rise in transphobic violence and rhetoric in our communities, we need to work together to create safer environments for 2SLGBTQIA+ students. This week is an opportunity to raise visibility on trans lives and experiences and address issues that trans community members face.
For this year’s Transgender Awareness Week, Out In Schools has specially curated film playlists and lesson plans that educators can bring into your classrooms. To access films and lesson plans, educators can register to join our free Film Catalogue.
We recommend watching 1 short film per day and debriefing as a group using our associated Lesson Plans. At the end of the week, ask students to reflect on their favourite film and how they can make their school more welcoming for people of all gender identities and expressions!
Grades 5-7 (Playlist A)
Twin Sparks (4 min)
When a forest child’s inner fire spirit breaks loose, they frantically try to catch it before damage is done.
Conflicted and alienated by his given name, a young trans kid tries to hide his identity from his mom and divides himself in two to live a double life.
Feel free to mix and match any of the incredible films in Playlists A and B for Grades 5-7!
Grades 8-9
A Typical Fairytale (12 min)
A young couple have a fairytale love story but are interrupted by their child’s divergence from the classic narrative. This quirky story about love and acceptance is ALL IN RHYME!
Non-binary teen Anemio finds respite from her conservative Christian family at the marine livestock shop where they work, comforted by the anemone and hermaphroditic marine creatures.
Schuyler Bailar is a decorated swimmer and the first publicly documented NCAA D1 transgender man to compete as a man in any sport. He was recruited to Harvard as a female athlete and transitioned while continuing to compete and advocate for trans inclusion.
Two women live happily together until one starts to transform, disturbing their usual dynamic. The one left unchanged has to decide how far their love goes.
We have partnered with ARC Foundation and the filmmakers behind feature documentary Changing The Game to offer educators a free virtual screening of the film followed by a curated discussion. Changing The Game follows three transgender high school athletes in the U.S. competing in their sports while challenging the boundaries and perceptions of fairness and discrimination.
When you register for the webinar, you will be given access to watch the full film between November 13-20 and then join us for a Lunch-n-Learn post-viewing discussion on Tuesday, November 21 at 12:00 PM PST / 1:00 PM MST for a discussion on supporting trans athletes in your schools.
The film and discussion are open to educators in BC, Yukon, and Alberta. Registrants will receive access to the film by email on November 13th. A recording of the Zoom discussion will also be provided to registrants after the event.
Physical Health Education is one place where there are often questions around how to include transgender students, particularly in competitive sports. In BC, while transgender students have the right to play on the sports team that aligns with their gender identity, there are still many barriers to participation.
If you made use of these resources, we would love to hear how your lessons went and any other feedback! Get in touch with us at info@outinschools.com.
A personal look back on depictions of HIV/AIDS in film and tv since 1981 by Sam Snobelen, Program Logistics Manager.
When I sat down to write this post, I had a very clear picture in mind: chart the evolution of HIV representation in film and tv over the past 40 years. I quickly learned this was a nigh-impossible task. Thanks to some excellent advice from friends and coworkers, I settled on a seemingly simpler – and yet equally daunting – task: focusing on understanding my own experience with seeing depictions of HIV and AIDS on screen.
June 5, 1981 marked a significant headline for health: the first reporting of five cases of Pneumocystis cainii pneumonia in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). This report forever changed the way queer people spoke about themselves, how we were seen by those outside the community, and how we were portrayed in media. Within 18 months, the Centre for Disease Control had investigated these and other cases and began to craft the list of symptoms we now attribute to an HIV or AIDS diagnoses.
Forty years later, HIV/AIDS continues to stigmatize marginalized communities. Even as campaigns like U=U grow public awareness and shift public perception of HIV, we are still living in the shadow of four decades’ worth of media-driven conversations about the virus, its methods of transmission, and the people who live with and alongside it.
The 80s and early 90s
I wasn’t around in 1981, but by the time I started coming out at age 13, somewhere between episodes of Will and Grace and Queer as Folk, I was terrified of contracting HIV.
As a young gay boy growing up in the 90s, I couldn’t escape talk of HIV, even in my small rural community in Southern Ontario. I remember feeling resigned to the fact that I would contract HIV. I’ve been trying to figure out where that resignation came from – somehow I just knew that gay men were associated with the virus. When I dug deeper, I realized that my fear and my understanding of HIV and AIDS was formed entirely by the media.
Everywhere I saw my gay, cis, white male identity represented, HIV was always present. In most tv shows and films where gay men were on-screen characters, HIV was a central theme. Gay men were sick, dying, and often alone.
In an effort to better understand these connections, I asked some folks I know, and many I don’t, about where they first remember seeing HIV depicted in film or on tv, and I found some interesting commonalities.
Philadelphia was the most common response among Gen-X and older folks, along with a few older Millennials. The 1993 film is easily recognizable and was among the first mainstream films to centre the stories of people living with HIV/AIDS. The film also presents the common narrative that gay people deserve to contract the virus as a punishment for their actions. The defence blames Andrew Beckett (played here by Tom Hanks, who won an Oscar for his portrayal) as deserving to be fired, and for having HIV, because he’s gay.
This theme also appeared in an 1987 episode of Designing Women called Killing All the Right People, in which the titular women have to design a funeral for a colleague dying of AIDS-related illnesses. The iconic Julia Sugarbaker delivers an impassioned retort to a woman who suggests HIV is “killing all the right people,” verbally slapping back at seven years’ worth of homophobic, racist, and classist commentary on the virus.
It appeared again in the 1992 episode of Captain Planet, Formula for Hate, in which the Planeteers fight lies about HIV/AIDS in order to protect a high school basketball player who has contracted the virus through a blood transfusion. This episode was notably based on the real life story of Ryan White, a teenager in Indiana who contracted the virus in 1984 in the same way, becoming a target of harassment and even being banned from his school because of his diagnosis. Our Executive Director, Brandon Yan, shared that this episode was his earliest memory of seeing HIV depicted in the media last December as part of his message on World AIDS Day.
The late 90s
Contrastly, many Millennials I spoke with shared that RENT was the first time they remember seeing HIV/AIDS in the media.
In 1996, when the musical first hit Broadway, the conversation around HIV/AIDS in the media had largely solidified around three common themes: physical contact could not spread the virus; gay men were common (and, often, deserving) victims of the virus; and it was also possible to transmit the virus through blood contact – be it through a transfusion, or shared needles and other implements. RENT, and it’s 2005 film adaptation, takes these themes and runs with them in a way that stands out for the time. RENT doesn’t give people living with HIV the very-special-episode treatment, nor does it overemphasize public health education talking points. Centring the stories of people living with HIV was a sharp departure from the way these stories were being handled on tv. The Beverly Hills, 90210 episode Disappearing Act, which aired in the same year and was my own first time seeing a character living with HIV on tv, does the exact opposite, for example. In this episode lead character Kelly panics over, then learns more about HIV after touching the blood of her infected friend Jimmy. Jimmy’s whole role is to educate Kelly about HIV before dying by the end of the episode.
RENT also departed from tv depictions in the diversity of its characters. Media depictions of gay men and thus of people living with HIV has been heavily dominated by white, cis male characters for much of the past 40 years. Every previous example listed here centres on a white male protagonist, as do many of the other common first time memories I heard: Prior in Angels in America (Broadway, 1993; film, 2003), Ben and Hunter in the American adaptation of Queer as Folk (tv, 2000-2005), Longtime Companion (film, 1988; also one of the first films to explore the toll of HIV), It’s My Party (film, 1996), Dallas Buyer’s Club (film, 2013)… the list goes on. Worse, most of the queer roles in these portrayals were cast with straight actors, further alienating people from the depictions of their lived experiences in film and tv.
Controlling the narrative
In a 2018 list of 31 films about HIV compiled by Out Magazine, only three centred Black characters. This lack of representation is sadly not uncommon. After reviewing several lists with such clickbait titles as ‘The Top HIV Films Since 1985’ or ‘10 Films About HIV to Watch After It’s A Sin’ it is obvious that Black people have been excluded from queer HIV narratives in film and tv.
Narratives about Black people living with HIV and AIDS focus almost entirely on the enduring epidemic in African nations. But the reality is that despite making up just 13% of the US population in 2018, the CDC estimates that Black and African American people accounted for 42% of new HIV infections that year. Many of those people were women. In Canada, it is estimated that Black people account for 25% of reported HIV cases, despite making up just 3.5% of the population. Comparatively, white Canadians make up less than one-third of HIV infections, while making up nearly three-quarters of the national population. The way in which we talk and think about HIV historically and today has been specifically crafted to focus on white men.
It’s important to note that none of the examples of HIV/AIDS representation people shared with me, and none of the lists I found on my own, centred or even included Indigenous representation. While the Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) states that 11.3% of all new HIV infections in 2016 were among First Nation and Metis communities, despite Indigenous people accounting for only 4.9% of the population, and links this elevated risk rate to the “considerable disconnect” between traditional approaches to HIV treatment and Indigenous worldviews, Indigenous people are absent from pop culture depictions of the virus’ impact. In fact, Healing Inner Voices, a short film created by the Drawing Wisdom project which screened at last year’s VQFF, is the only representation I’m aware of for Indigenous people living with HIV/AIDS.
Looking towards the future
And therein lies a serious problem. At 13 years old, I was scared of contracting HIV because the virus was synonymous with being a gay man. But what terrifies me today is the realization that for 40 years of pop culture – which crafts and defines our worldviews – entire vulnerable populations were erased and seemingly intentionally excluded from what it looked like to be a person living with HIV or AIDS.
These influences continue today, shaping not only which stories are told, but also how, by whom, and for whom. Early depictions of characters living with HIV and AIDS were crucial to swinging public consciousness towards outrage and action, and generated sympathy for marginalized gay men facing an unprecedented health crisis. Representation in the mainstream, varied and sympathetic, was a step towards liberation. Likewise, a lack of that representation has perpetuated oppression, stigmatization, and violence towards marginalized and racialized people.
As we collectively look towards the hopeful end of a new and modern pandemic, this particular June 5 reminds us to also look at the ongoing portrayal of an epidemic that’s been playing out before us since 1981. When we tell the stories of COVID-19, we need to ask whose stories are being told and why, and we need to acknowledge who is being left out. We need to actively seek out stories different from our own, and demand that marginalized communities be given the screen time, care, and attention they deserve. They deserve to be portrayed authentically and with their full complexity, lest they continue to be oppressed.
Representation is a step towards liberation.
– Sam Snobelen, Program Logistics Manager (he/him)
Additional Resources and Film Suggestions
Ontario HIV Treatment Network’s report on the Unmet Needs of Indigenous People Living with HIV
Fact Sheet for African, Carribean, and Black Canadian HIV/AIDS Awareness Day 2019
The CBC’s Dr. Peter Diaries (1990-1992) are an intimate and unflinching look at life with HIV. Dr. Peter Jepson-Young, founder of the Vancouver-based Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation, shared his lived experience with CBC-TV’s national audience. The footage remains freely available for viewing today.
Phil Donahue 1982 Interview with Gay Men’s Health Crisis co-founder Larry Kramer; Philip Lanzarotta, a Kaposi’s Sarcoma patient; and Dr. Dan William, who worked with patients with HIV/AIDS. The interview was one of the earliest and most public coverages of the HIV epidemic in the US.
Matt Baume reviews and summarizes Longtime Companion (1989)
Matt Baume talks Designing Women and tv’s role in teaching people about the AIDS crisis in the early 80s
Tongues United (1989) is a critically acclaimed experimental documentary by Marlon Riggs which uses poetry, rap, dance, and personal testimonies to illuminate the lived experiences of Riggs’ Black gay contemporaries. Tongues United sparked a furious debate over public arts funding in the United States when it aired on PBS in the early 90s, as some of then-President Bush’s opponents used it as an example of the government funding “pornographic and blasphemous art too shocking to show.”
The Ryan White Story (1989) was a film based on the real life story of Ryan White, a young hemophiliac who contracted HIV due to a tainted blood transfusion at the age of 13, in 1984. Ryan brought a legal case against his school after he was banned for fear that he could spread HIV to other students. Ryan changed the public perception of AIDS by challenging the notion that “all the right people” were being infected with the virus. His visibility within the community also led to the 1990 Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, the largest federal funding program for people living with HIV/AIDS in the US. The Act was extended under President Obama in 2009.
A short piece on Pedro Zamora, a member of MTV’s Real World cast in 1994. Pedro was open about his HIV status while on the show and became visibly more ill during production. He died a day after the final episode aired.
Yesterday (2004) is a South African film which poignantly depicts the vibrancy and tenacity of the titular Yesterday, played by Leleti Khumalo, as she works to keep her life together and to see her daughter to her first day of school following an HIV diagnosis.
Life Support (2008) stars Queen Latifa as a recovering addict living with HIV and struggling to rebuild her relationship with her daughter. The film is notable for having consulted with, and cast, people living with HIV/AIDS. (Available to stream on Crave)
Precious (2009) follows Claireece “Precious” Jones played by Gabourey Sidibe (who scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her portrayal) through her life in Harlem. Precious balances raising two children with completing her high school education, while learning to build her own life out of a traumatic past. (Available to stream on Crave)
It’s a Sin (2021) is a miniseries set in 1980s London. The series follows a group of young queer friends as they come face to face with the emerging HIV/AIDS epidemic and their lives are irrevocably changed. (Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video)
This week was Trans-Awareness Week and ended with Trans Day of Remembrance. Though trans representation and storytelling has yet to be equitably represented on screen, recent years have seen a welcome and much needed boost of trans folks both on-screen and behind the camera. Here are a few of my favourites from the past few years that are available to watch on various online platforms. Trans stories are for every day and week of the year, and I hope this list will help you start your own to watch and love!
In solidarity,
Anoushka Ratnarajah, Artistic Director
Disclosure
This monumental documentary from Laverne Cox provides an eye-opening look at depictions of trans people in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. With interviews from leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, Disclosure is an expansion to 1995’s “The Celluloid Closet”, a moving challenge to both storytellers and audiences.
Where to watch: Netflix
Disclosure | Sam Feder | USA | 2020 | 108 min | English
2. Lingua Franca
Screened as VQFF 2020’s Centrepiece Gala, Lingua Franca is both a unique take on a love-story, and the American Dream narrative, demonstrating the similarities between a trans and immigrant experiences by telling an intersectional story of a woman whose body carries the weight of both of those experiences. This film is a feat for trans director, writer and star Isabel Sandoval.
Where to watch: Netflix
Lingua Franca | Isabel Sandoval | USA, Philippines | 2019 | 95 min | Tagalog and English
3. Alice Junior
This totally delightful teen rom-com follows teenage Alice as she navigates her new harsh Catholic highschool and aches for her first kiss. Played by Brazilian YouTube star Anne Celestino Mota, Alice is fierce and unabashed in her insistent right to be who she is. This is the trans girl coming of age rom-com we all need!
Where to watch: Netflix
Alice Junior | Gil Baroni | Brazil | 2019 | 87 min | Portuguese
4. XY Chelsea
This documentary is a look at the life and career of Chelsea Manning, a trans woman soldier in the United States Army, who was sentenced to serve 35 years at an all-male military prison for leaking information about the country’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shot over two years and featuring exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes verité with Manning, the film picks up on the momentous day in May when she leaves prison and follows her through her journey of discovery, while also examining her place in the conversation on national security and the fight of the transgender community for rights and visibility.
Where to watch: Crave
XY Chelsea | Tim Travers Hawkins | United Kingdom | 2019 | 90 min | English
5. Transhood
Filmed in Kansas City, Missouri over the course of five years, “Transhood” focuses its lens on families and kids in America’s heartland. Intimate and heartfelt, this film gives space to complex and difficult conversations between parents and children, without ever losing focus on the strength and vulnerability of the young people to have to advocate for themselves beyond their years. During a time when trans rights have been consistently under attack, “Transhood” is a vital record of what it’s like to grow up trans in Trump-era America. This film is particularly a great watch for allied parents of trans children.
Where to watch: Crave
Transhood | Sharon Liese | USA | 2019 | 96 min | English
6. Man Made
This documentary takes audiences on a journey with four trans men (Rese, Dominic, Kennie and Mason) who are all striving to compete at Trans FitCon the only all-transgender bodybuilding competition in the world, held in Atlanta, Georgia. All four men are in different places in their journeys and lives, yet they face similar struggles as they create a masculinity that makes sense to each of them. This film is a honest and intimate look at body and gender politics, as well as a heartbreaking and uplifting story of relationships and self-love. All audiences will be able to connect to the stories shared here, as we see that these men are not really in the contest for the winning, but to be seen.
Where to watch: Prime
Man Made | T Cooper | USA | 2018 | 93 min | English
7. Call Her Ganda
In 2014, Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman was found dead in a motel room, killed by a US Marine stationed in the Philippines. PJ Raval’s moving documentary follows three women intimately involved in Jennifer’s case; her mother Julita, who is relentless in her pursuit of justice for her daughter; American-Filipina trans journalist Meredith Talusan; and the family’s lawyer Virgie Suarez, who is faced with the daunting task of not only proving a murder case, but also taking on the Visiting Forces Agreement, which dictates that the U.S. government retain jurisdiction over military personnel accused of committing crimes in the Philippines. This riveting film shows the ways in which American imperialism and the violence against women like Jennifer are inextricably linked, and raises complex questions about sovereignty, justice, and the right to self-determination.
Where to watch: Prime
Call Her Ganda | PJ Raval | Philippines | 2018 | 80 min | Tagalog and English
8. Gun Hill Road
This first feature film from Raashad Ernesto Green was a Sundance smash and successfully toured many film festivals throughout the world. Enrique is an ex-con who returns home to the Bronx after three years in prison to discover his wife estranged from him and his child exploring a gender transformation that will put the fragile bonds of their family to the test. Gun Hill Road is a story of transition, and how gender, sexuality, race, and culture intersect in one family, who struggle to be their true selves within the expectations of community and society. Starring Harmony Santana in her first role, this film is a tender testament to the love between parents and children.
Where to watch: Itunes
Gun Hill Road | Raashad Ernesto Green | USA | 2011 | 86 min | English
9. Drunktown’s Finest
Sydney Freeland’s 2015 premiere at Sundance with Drunktown’s Finest, garnered her numerous acclaim. The film follows three young Navajo peo ple as they strive to find connection, validation and opportunity in an authentic and sensitive coming of age story. The late Carmen Moore shines in her first feature role as Felixia, and Freeland crafts her setting and characters from her own experiences as a trans indigneous woman, and creates a film that is as complex as it is empathetic.
Where to watch: Itunes
Drunktown’s Finest | Sydney Freeland | USA | 2015 | 95 min | Navajo, English
10. Free CeCe
On June 5, 2011, Cece McDonald was brutally attacked. While defending her life, her attacker was killed. CeCe was incarcerated in a men’s prison in Minnesota. An international campaign to free CeCe garnered significant support from media and activists, including trans activists Kate Bornstein, Leslie Feinberg and Laverne Cox. The documentary’s focus follows CeCe’s trail, but above all it shows the months after her release as she calls upon a circle of support from caring friends and family, and demonstrates her invaluable leadership as an activist and educator. Her leading voice resonates throughout the documentary and will surely remain in the minds of everyone who sees Free CeCe. This film was VQFF’s Centrepiece Gala in 2017.
Where to watch: Vimeo
Free CeCe | Jac Gares | 2016 | USA | 100 min | English
11. Beauty
Beauty explores the lives of five gender-creative kids, each uniquely engaged in shaping their own sense of what it means to be fully human. Whether it’s dealing with bullies, explaining themselves to their parents, or navigating the uncharted waters of relationships, Bex, Lili, Fox, Tru and Milo talk about their experiences and struggle to live in authenticity. This film screened at VQFF 2018 and won our Audience Choice Award for Best Short Film.
Where to watch: NFBBeauty | Christina Willing | Canada | 2018 | 24 min | English and French
12. Do I Have Boobs Now?
In 2015, Victoria-based trans activist Courtney Demone launched the viral online campaign #DoIHaveBoobsNow, in which she posted topless photos of her transition on social media while undergoing hormone replacement therapy. One year later, Courtney revisits the global conversation she catalyzed on social media censorship policies and the sexualization of feminine bodies, and reflects on the impacts of being thrust into the critical spotlight as a visible trans activist and queer feminist. This local short film screened at VQFF 2017.
Where to watch: NFB
Do I Have Boobs Now | Joella Cabalu & Milena Salazar | Canada | 2017 | 7 min | English
13. Niish Manidoowag (Two-Spirited Beings)
Four youth travel Bebamikawe Trail on Wiikwemkoong Unceded First Nation Territory. Two of the youths are Two Spirited and discuss the confrontations and acceptance that they have encountered within their community and how it has affected their ability to experience and learn their culture. Long before the settlers arrived to Turtle Island, Two Spirited people were revered and treated with respect and equality. Niish Manidoowag speaks to these histories, identities and cultural roles as they are being reclaimed by generations of queer indigneous people.
Mino Bimaadiziwin | Shane Mcsauby | Turtle Island | 2018 | 10 min | Anishinaabemowin & English
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