Understanding Myself as an Amphibian

Sept 19, 2026
1:30 PM

Location
International Village

Watch Online in BC
Sept 20, 12 AM - Sept 27, 11:59 PM

GET TICKETS

North American premiere

Director

May Caroline Matchim

Country

Canada

Year

2026

Runtime

63 min

Languages

English

May Matchim explores the diversity of gender and sexuality in nature while navigating her own gender transition. Drawing on queer ecology across Turtle Island, the film reveals the fascinating science of sex-changing amphibians, same-sex animal families, and all-female salamander groups. Through science, history, and grassroots initiatives like the Queer Forest Club and Feminist Bird Club, Matchim highlights spaces where queer and trans communities connect with nature. This thoughtful documentary challenges binaries and celebrates the natural world’s boundless diversity, reminding us that queerness is not an exception—it exists everywhere, across ecosystems, species, and communities.

DIRECTOR BIO
May Caroline Matchim

May Matchim is a Trans woman filmmaker based in Toronto. She has a BA in Film Production from York University. In 2022 she graduated from Fleming College’s Environmental Visual Communications program, where she completed a communications placement at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre. Understanding Myself as an Amphibian is her first feature film.

CREDITS
Producer
May Caroline Matchim
Writer
May Caroline Matchim
SHORT

Candace Campo (xets’emits’a), a shíshálh knowledge keeper, artist, and cultural educator, collaborates with Trent Maynard, a settler filmmaker, poet, and ethnoecologist. Set throughout five years of fieldwork, the pair reimagine documentary filmmaking as a meditational practice of listening and relation-making.