Resources for Trans* Research and Learning

Features intimate interviews with 6 transgendered lesbians (5 African American, 1 Asian) living in New York City who define themselves as "aggressives." They exhibit masculine appearances and behaviors, but do not aspire to be men. Shows their daily lives and their participation in the underground lesbian "ball" scene, where cross-dressers compete for trophies.

How does it feel when your mom prays everyday for you to be someone else? That's the struggle Johanna, a 16 year old transgender Latina faces. At first her mom thinks she's confused, or joking, but as Johanna's transformation continues, her mom simply can't handle the fact that her son is Becoming Johanna. After prayer doesn't change anything, Johanna's mom tries therapists and a mental hospital in her quest to "fix" her daughter's gender identity. While she was born a boy, Johanna is a young woman on the inside and nothing but living a lie can change that.

Are you male or female? For four young transgender adults this is not a simple question. Since early childhood, these four defied societal norms to be their true selves and become more visible. Sean is a trans male comedian from a small affluent town in upstate New York. Katherine is a Bangladeshi trans girl from a family steeped in their cultural traditions. Olivia had to leave her family in Atlanta and enter the shelter system in order to be the woman she knows she is. The unforgettable Morgin is a fully transitioned woman pursuing her musical ambitions and attempting to make her way in the world.

Built around the lives of 15 founding members of the world’s first transgender gospel choir, the film portrays the choir’s dilemma — how to reconcile their gender identity with the widespread belief that changing one’s gender goes against the word of God. Filmed over three years, the film takes us from the Transcendence Gospel Choir’s shaky beginnings, when the heartwarmingly chaotic, cacophonous group is unable to agree on much of anything, arguing over appropriate wardrobe and learning to sing with transitioning voices, through their transformation into a polished, award-winning choir and close-knit family.

Follows the transitions of Nicco, Norie and Keegan, three young New Yorkers from different race and class backgrounds, as they prepare for and undergo female to male transition surgery. Their stories are interspersed with interviews with lesbians, activists and theorists who engage with the often-contentious questions and issues that are raised within the queer and feminist communities but are rarely discussed openly.

Documents the transformation of a female-to-male transsexual over the course of six years, highlighting changes in his relationships with his female partner and close friends.

Documentary film about Brandon Teena, who arrived in rural Falls City, Nebraska, in 1993 where he finds some new friends. Three weeks later he is brutally raped and beaten by friends who discover that he is actually a woman. A week later the same two men murder Teena along with two other people. This is a tale of Brandon's coming of age struggle with identity and how his gender ambiguity induced feelings of betrayal, confusion and hostility among residents of a town in America's heartland.

When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case: an activist attorney, a transgender journalist and Jennifer's mother. They galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of U.S. imperialism.

On her way to the store with a group of friends, Chrishaun Reed "CeCe" McDonald was brutally attacked. While defending her life, a man was killed. After a coercive interrogation, CeCe was incarcerated in a men's prison in Minnesota. An international campaign to free CeCe garnered significant support from media and activists, including actress Laverne Cox. Cox signed on as executive producer of FREE CECE!, committed to exploring the role race, class, and gender played in CeCe's case. In the end, CeCe emerged not only as a survivor, but also as a leader. Documentarian Jac Gares pushed past the everyday narratives of victimhood surrounding the lives of transgender people, to spotlight the way CeCe and other trans people are leading a growing movement fighting for the rights of transgender people everywhere.

An illuminating and compassionate look at the world of transgender identity, as seen through portraits of some of San Francisco's leading gender mixers. Whether by birth or by choice, sometimes with the assistance of hormones or surgical prostheses, we meet those who blur the lines of male and female.

Following Madison during three years of her transition from male to female, this film highlights Madison’s loving relationship with her glamorous 80-year-old grandmother. Their conversations raise profound issues about the nature of gender, femininity, and sexuality.

Existing as they have for centuries, the Eunuchs (or “Hijra”) are considered the third gender, neither men nor women. The film follows the lives of Jyothi, Usha and Hira Bai, three Eunuchs who live openly as women. They want to be accepted for what they truly believe themselves to be.

Documents the daily activities of three individual who are coming to terms with their transgender identities and the related emotional and physical transformations while living in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Performance artist and writer Kate Bornstein explores binaries while deconstructing gender--and her own identity. Trans-dyke. Reluctant polyamorist. Sadomasochist. Recovering Scientologist. Pioneering gender outlaw. Kate Bornstein is a queer & pleasant danger joins her on her latest tour, capturing rollicking public performances and painful personal revelations as it bears witness to Kate as a trailblazing artist-theorist-activist who inhabits a space between male and female with wit, style and astonishing candor.

Former U.S. Navy SEAL Christopher Beck embarks on a new mission as Kristin Beck. Kristin's journey in search of the American ideals that she protected has a whole new meaning as she lives her life truthfully as a transgender woman. After a lifetime of service, Kristin has learned that her fight for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness did not end on the battlefield.

Celebrates the life and artistic endeavors of Breanna Sinclaire, an African American opera singer and the first openly transgender woman to study at a major conservatory, while reflecting back on memories of her childhood self-discovery.

Explores the lives of those who do not conform to rigid gender concepts and examines changes in brain science that are shedding light on grey areas between male and female. Individuals in the U.S., Suriname, India, and Thailand who have undergone gender transformation, or who have chosen same-sex partners, share their experiences--revealing a wide array of cultural attitudes on this eye-opening journey through psychology, biology, and sociology.

Among the Zapotec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, boy babies who are born in a certain position, or little boys who prefer to play with girls, are raised as women, and are known as Muxes. The Muxes of Juchitán are proud of their identity, enjoy their lives, laugh at themselves as well as at "straight" society, and admit their own foibles freely. They call themselves "Authentic, Intrepid Seekers of Danger," and have banded together to lead the fight against AIDS in Oaxaca. In this documentary, they talk frankly about their experiences of acceptance and rejection, and their successes in finding freedom, love and delight in their special identity.

This lighthearted and poignant documentary profiles three sisters, ages 6, 9 and 11, struggling to understand why and how their Uncle Bill is becoming a woman. These girls love their Uncle Bill, but will they feel the same way when he becomes their new Aunt Barbara? With just weeks until Bill’s first visit as Barbara, the sisters navigate the complex territories of anatomy, sexuality, personality, gender and fashion.

As leader of the world's only LGBT political party, Bemz Benedito dreams of being the first transgender woman in the Philippine Congress. But in a predominantly Catholic nation, rallying for LGBT representation in the halls of Congress is not an easy feat. Bemz and her eclectic team of queer political warriors must rethink traditional campaign strategies to amass support from unlikely places. Taking their equality campaign to small-town hair salons and regional beauty pageants, the activists mobilize working-class trans hairdressers and beauty queens to join the fight against their main political opponent, a homophobic evangelical preacher, and prove to the Filipino electorate that it's time to take the rights of LGBT people seriously.

Tells the story of Angie Zapata, a transgender teen murdered in Colorado in 2008.

An investigation on how people with physical disabilities or with surgically altered bodies adjust sexually, including a man with a spinal cord injury, a male to female transsexual and a woman with breast cancer.

Returning home to Montana for her high school reunion, filmmaker Kimberly Reed (previously the school quarterback and now a transgender woman) hopes for reconciliation with her long-estranged adopted brother. But along the way she uncovers stunning revelations (including a connection to Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth), intense sibling rivalries, and unforeseeable twists of plot and gender that force them to face challenges no one could imagine.

Tells the story of Renee Richards's battle to enter the 1977 US Open as the first transsexual tennis player. Simultaneously, it follows her today as she struggles to cope with a life of contradictions and personal conflict. Through interviews with tennis legends, family, friends, and experts from the transsexual field, a story of perseverance, breakthrough and hardship unfolds.

A documentary representing the multi-dimensional lives of transgender and gender variant musicians, as well as a first-hand perspective of the intersections between gender performance and stage performance.

Explores the lives of Hispanic male transvestite prostitutes and crack addicts living in abandoned garbage trucks at a road salt storage facility near lower Manhattan.

Robert Eads is a 52-year-old wise-cracking cowboy who was born female and transitioned into living as a man after bearing two sons. Fifteen years later, he has fallen in love with Lola, a vivacious and magnetic woman who was born male. Together they are coping with Robert’s terminal case of ovarian cancer.

Follows a community of transgender women in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, as they search for romance and intimacy. Uncover a world that not only defies our expectations of gender and Islam, but also reveals our endless capacity as human beings to search for love -- whatever the consequences.

Addresses the persistent discrimination, harassment, and violence that people who transgress gender norms face in gender segregated bathrooms. Using the stories of people who have been harassed, arrested or beaten for trying to use bathrooms, this groundbreaking film focuses on bathroom access in public space, in schools, and at work.

An up-close and personal journey into the transgender world through the memorable stories and the unusual lives of a remarkable cast of characters. These are the stories of boys and girls, men and woman and all the shades in between. Stories of extraordinary people who face fear, discrimination, ignorance and violence in the hopes they might one day be able to live ordinary lives.

Follows Ricardo, a homeless, HIV-positive transvestite prostitute (originally profiled in The Salt Mines) as he rejects his street life to join a group of Born Again Christians from Dallas, Texas in an effort to transform his life from that of a homosexual to a heterosexual. He ends up marrying a woman and returns to the New York streets to proselytize among his former associates.

Tells the transformative story of Matt, a bodybuilder, world-record powerlifter, cancer survivor, father of three teenage sons, and former U.S. Marine, as he transitions into a woman, now known as Janae.

A short training video designed to give healthcare providers the opportunity to understand the needs of the transgender community. The film shows a diversity of transgender people speaking about their experiences accessing medical care with a focus on concrete advice and best practices toward improving the skills of health care providers.

Chronicles the lives of 12 courageous people who came to the first-ever public health clinic in the US to offer full primary care to transgender people in San Francisco's gritty Tenderloin District. The warm narratives of these pioneering patients turn the harrowing places they have been into a testament of victory and hope.

Follows four American college students as they prepare for gender reassignment. They discuss their lives, their hopes and setbacks, and deal with varying reactions from family and friends.

Around 15,500 transgender people serve in the U.S. military (notably the largest transgender employer in the U.S.), where they must conceal their gender identity because military policies ban their service. TransMilitary chronicles the lives of four individuals (Senior Airman Logan Ireland, Corporal Laila Villanueva, Captain Jennifer Peace & First Lieutenant El Cook) defending their country's freedom while fighting for their own.

A feature documentary about nineteen year old trans woman, Shelly 'Treasure' Hilliard, whose murder involved police coercion, Jim Crow drug laws, the criminalization of sex work and transphobia. It is about a young Detroit trans community activated by her death, and her family, who are suing for justice.

Documents a growing community living life "beyond the binary" construct of gender and provides a first-hand account of what it is like to exist other than male or female, while living within the confines of a world that is slow to catch up.

Provides honest and riveting portraits of six men who once were women. Through their commentaries and the experiences of partners, friends, and family emerges an unforgettable story of self-discovery.

Filmed over 52 consecutive Tuesdays with the non-profesional cast being given their scripts one week at a time, this Australian coming of age independent film centers on 16-year-old Billie's reluctant path to independence, accelerated when her mother reveals plans to gender transition and their time together becomes limited to Tuesday afternoons.

Manuela is a devoted single mother who needs to come to grips with the death of her 17-year-old son, Esteban. She had never told Esteban about his father, but after reading her son's journal she realizes she has to find Esteban's father, and explain what has happened. She leaves Madrid for Barcelona, to reconnect with her old friend Agrado, who introduces her to Rosa, a young nun in trouble, and Huma Rojo, a brilliant actress whom young Esteban idolized. A Hollywood melodrama done up as Greek tragedy translated into the context of everyday modern life, the film sums up both the boundlessness and the limitations of a mother's love.

Based on the true story of Thailand's famed transgendered kickboxer, this action drama punches straight into the heart and mind of a boy who fights like a man so he can become a woman. Believing he's a girl trapped in a boy's body since childhood, Parinya Charoenphol sets out to master the most masculine and lethal sport of Muay Thai (Thai boxing) to earn a living and to achieve his ultimate goal of a sex-change operation. Packed with breathtaking Thai kickboxing sequences and humor, the film traces Nong Toom's childhood, teenage life as a traveling monk, and grueling days in boxing camps.

Two twenty year-olds living in Kentucky, Robby and his best friend since childhood, Ricky, a gorgeous transgender girl, have never dated. Lamenting the lack of eligible bachelors, Ricky considers dating a girl. In walks Francesca, a beautiful young débutante waiting for her Marine fiance to return from the war. Ricky and Francesca strike up a friendship, and maybe a little more, which forces Robby to face his true feelings for Ricky.

A transgendered youth starts living as a man, and assumes the name Brandon Teena. He moves to a tiny Nebraska town and begins making new friends under his new identity. All goes well until his new friends discover his secret. Based on a true story about hope, fear, and the courage it takes to be yourself.

As foster kid Patrick 'Kitten' Braden grows up, he leaves behind his small-town life in Ireland for London, where he's reborn as a transvestite cabaret singer in the 1960s and 70s.

An unlikely kind of friendship develops between Fergus, an Irish Republican Army volunteer, and Jody, a kidnapped British soldier lured into an IRA trap by another IRA member. When the hostage-taking ends up going horribly wrong, Fergus escapes and heads to London, where he seeks out Jody's lover, a hairdresser named Dil. Fergus changes his name and gets a job as a day laborer. His starts seeing Dil, who knows nothing about Fergus' real background. But there are some things about Dil that Fergus does not know either.

A love story inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

Marina and Orlando are in love and planning their future, when one night Orlando suddenly falls ill and passes away. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, Marina is treated with suspicion by authorities and with disdain by his family. She is forbidden to attend his funeral and thrown out of the apartment they shared. Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando's family, her sexual identity is a perversion. So she must battle the very same forces that she as spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now -- complex, strong, forthright and fantastic.

After three years in prison, Enrique returns home to the Bronx to find the world he knew has changed. His wife, Angela, struggles to hide an emotional affair, and his teenage son, Michael, explores a sexual transformation well beyond Enrique's grasp and understanding.

Adapted from the off-Broadway musical hit. Hedwig, a surgically botched transsexual from East Germany, travels the States with her band, playing a string of restaurants to audiences rendered incredulous by her boyish brand of girl glam. She reveals his story in flashbacks between musical numbers. For Hedwig, who exists in an indeterminate but politically charged space between freedom and frustration, life is about looking for her personal dividing wall - to smash it into ruin.

In the '90s, Laurence tells his girlfriend Fred that he wants to become a woman. In spite of the odds, they confront the prejudices of their friends, ignore the counsel of their families, and brave the phobias of the society they offend. For ten years, they try to live through this transition, and embark on an epic journey which, unbeknownst to them, may cost Fred and Laurence their love.

Ludovic is waiting for a miracle. With seven-year-old certainty, he believes he was meant to be a little girl and that the mistake will soon be corrected. But where he expects the miraculous, Ludo finds only rejection, isolation and guilt--as the intense reactions of family, friends, and neighbors strip away every innocent lace and bauble.

Roy and Irma are a devoted couple living a normal life in rural Illinois. At a party celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, Roy inexplicably blacks out. As he awakens, it is with the realization that his life must change forever. Roy confesses to Irma that he's a woman trapped in a man's body and that he wants a sex change. A surprise to his wife, turns out to be a shock to the church-going community. Now Roy must face his friends, co-workers and his own children as he confronts his own transformation.

Orlando, an English nobleman, defies the laws of nature with surprising results. Immortal and highly imaginative, he undergoes a series of extraordinary transformations that humorously, hauntingly illustrate the eternal war between the sexes.

Lukas, 20, is a prisoner in his own body. As a pre-op transgendered person, he is constantly finding himself trapped in uncomfortable, compromising positions. His best friend Ine introduces him to the gay scene in Cologne, where he meets the confident and gorgeous Fabio. The two develop a romantic relationship that tests the boundaries of friendship, sex and love.

It's Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn't been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the sex worker and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles.

Laure is 10 years old and a tomboy. On arrival in a new neighborhood, she lets Lisa and her crowd believe that she is a boy. Summer becomes a big playground and Laure pretends to be "Mikael", a boy like the others, different enough to get the attention of Lisa, who falls in love with him. Laure takes advantage of her new identity as if the end of the summer would never reveal her unsettling secret.

Bree is a pre-operative, male-to-female transsexual, who holds down two jobs and saves every penny so that she can pay for the one last operation that will make her a woman. One day, however, she receives a strange phone call. On the line is Toby, apparently her son, who must be the product of a somewhat clumsy sexual encounter years ago when she was a man. He is in New York in jail. Bree flies from Los Angeles to New York in order to get the boy out of jail. The boy is handed over to her without a word of explanation and Toby believes the woman to be some Christian missionary determined to convert reprobates to Jesus. However, she finds out that the boy just wants to escape from her and hitchhike to Los Angeles. She persuades him to accompany her back to the west coast.