La Dany: The Diva of Bolivar Park

Director: Jim Giles and Julie Giles
Release Year: 2010

La Dany: The Diva of Bolivar Park is a compelling and intimate documentary directed by Jim Giles and Julie Giles that shines a powerful light on the life of Dany Castaño Quintero, a transvestite street performer from Medellín, Colombia. Released in 2010, the film captures not only the extraordinary performance art of a singular personality but also the complexities and hardships faced by marginalized communities in one of Colombia’s most volatile cities.

Apparence féminine

Director: Richard Rein
Release Year: 1980

Richard Rein’s 1980 documentary Apparence féminine is a rare gem in French cinema, an unvarnished, cinéma-vérité portrait of a trans woman at a time when transgender identities were largely invisible, ridiculed, or reduced to medical oddities. Shot with a fixed camera, stripped of visual artifice, and devoid of dramatic music or narration, the film invites the viewer into an unmediated encounter with Dominique, a trans woman in her thirties, whose dignity, wit, and self-awareness cut through decades of social stigma. At the center of the film is Dominique, formerly Jean-Paul, who recounts her journey not as a linear narrative of transformation, but as a complex and evolving negotiation with gender, society, and desire.

TEDx Talks: Nina Arsenault

Show: TEDx Talks
Title: The transgender conversation has just begun
Release Year: 2015

On December 8, 2015, at a TEDx event, artist and activist Nina Arsenault took to the stage not to explain what it means to be transgender, but to ask: Why wasn’t she angry? And more importantly, why did that question matter so much? Delivered with emotional clarity, biting humor, and searing honesty, Arsenault’s talk was less a lecture than a call to witness. It spanned continents, cultures, and decades of personal and political reckoning. From performing naked 60 feet above the ground at the Pope’s Palace in Avignon, France, to confronting the mundane cruelty of everyday ignorance in Canadian bars, Arsenault charted the internal journey of a trans woman who had once resisted anger, and eventually learned why she couldn’t anymore.

Schoolboy to Showgirl: The Alexandra Billings Story

Written and produced by: Alexandra Silets
Release Year: 2009

Schoolboy to Showgirl: The Alexandra Billings Story is a powerful documentary that chronicles the remarkable life of Alexandra Billings, a trailblazing transgender actress, singer, and teacher. Written and produced by Alexandra Silets, the film takes viewers on an intimate journey through Billings' multifaceted life, exploring her gender transition, battles with addiction, triumph over homelessness and HIV, and her ascent in the world of performance and activism. Part of the "Out & Proud in Chicago" series, the documentary premiered on PBS (WTTW-11) on June 19, 2009, and earned a nomination for an Emmy Award in the Best Documentary category. Through candid interviews and rare archival footage, the film offers a raw and deeply human portrait of one of the first openly transgender women to appear on American television.

Translatina

Director: Felipe Degregori
Release Year: 2010

In 2010, filmmaker Esther Prade released Translatina, a groundbreaking documentary that emerged from three years of intensive production, over 100 hours of footage, and interviews spanning 15 different nationalities. This ambitious work paints a sobering, vivid portrait of the daily struggles and systemic challenges faced by transgender individuals throughout Latin America. More than just a film, Translatina is a critical social document and a call for justice and inclusion in a region where transgender people are often invisible, marginalized, and discriminated against. Transgender people in Latin America face deeply entrenched societal barriers. Often rejected by their families and communities, they endure harassment, discrimination, and violence that few outside their communities fully understand. These experiences are frequently denied or ignored by mainstream society, which perpetuates their invisibility.