I Don't Wanna Be a Boy

Directors: Alex Behrens and Marijn Muijser
Release Year: 1994

The 1994 documentary I Don’t Wanna Be a Boy by Alex Behrens and Marijn Muijser captures a raw slice of New York City at a time when the meatpacking district was both a workplace and a battleground for trans women who survived through sex work. It is only 28 minutes long, yet it lingers like a full-length portrait because of the intimacy with which it presents its subjects and the bleakness that underlies their everyday lives.

Uncle Gloria: One Helluva Ride

Director: Robyn Symon
Release Year: 2014

Everyone has their own journey in life to take. Sometimes it seems to follow a set path, but some journeys take us in unexpected directions and to places we never imagined. All we can do is enjoy the ride, and for Gloria Stein, it has been one helluva ride. Born Butch Rosichan, she began life as a short, stocky man in Broward County, South Florida. Butch made a living as an auto wrecker and was the type of man who would confront anyone at the slightest provocation. He was known for his bulldog demeanor, a willingness to fight if angered, and a crude sense of humor that included homophobic tendencies. Butch had two sons from a failed marriage, and his early years painted him as a rough, unapologetic character who seemed unfit for quiet domesticity. Yet that first image of him belied the remarkable transformations to come.

My Transgender Kid

Director: Emma Young
Release Year: 2015

The British documentary My Transgender Kid, directed by Emma Young, takes viewers into the lives of two families raising children who identify as a gender different from the one assigned at birth. It is not a sensationalist film but an intimate, empathetic portrayal of two seven-year-olds, George and Paddy, whose ordinary homes are reshaped by extraordinary circumstances. Rather than presenting statistics or theories, the documentary lingers on the everyday struggles, joys, and fears that define the journey of supporting a transgender child.

Transsex

Director: A. Marek Drążewski
Release Year: 1987

In 1987, when Poland was still under the gray weight of late communism, a short documentary appeared that startled audiences and quietly made history. A. Marek Drążewski’s Transsex was the first Polish film to address the lives of transgender people, though at the time the term most often used was “transsexual.” It was not an obvious project for the Wytwórnia Filmów Dokumentalnych, the state-run studio that produced it, nor was it a topic anyone in the official cultural apparatus was asking for. Drążewski convinced his superiors by presenting it as a study of nature, of forces that cannot be changed, of the fragile and unpredictable ways life takes shape. The studio agreed, but only reluctantly and with minimal funds, perhaps not even realizing what they were approving.

We Live Here: The Midwest

Director: Melinda Maerker
Release Year: 2023

In late 2023, Hulu released We Live Here: The Midwest, a documentary that doesn’t just observe its subjects but seems to sit beside them at their dinner tables, in their pews, and in their living rooms, listening. Directed by Melinda Maerker and executive produced by David France (Welcome to Chechnya), the film profiles five LGBTQ+ families living in America’s heartland. It is a portrait of contradiction, where prairie landscapes meet political hostility, and where love tries, against all odds, to make a home under skies that sometimes feel unwelcoming.