TRANSGENDER PARENTS reveals the gifts trans people bring to parenting because of, and not in spite of, their gender. It’s an intimate and tender look at the art of parenting, some of the hardest relational work in this life. (2014, 45min)
Transgender Parents was commissioned by CBC’s Documentary Channel and has played in festivals and universities internationally - including at WPATH 2016.
Transgender Parents is about love, life and kids after a gender transition. It shares the struggles and strengths of several trans women and trans men navigating different stages of parenting: from pregnancy, through raising infants, toddlers and teenagers.
Some, who transitioned prior to founding their families, experience fertility clinics and hospital births; others, who transitioned in the presence of their kids work to renegotiate their identity and relationships within their families. All are openly out in the world as trans and as parents in ways that weren’t possible 20 years ago.
Syrus and Nik, both in their 30s, live in downtown Toronto. We follow their story from Syrus’s pregnancy to the 2nd birthday of young Amélie as they make their way in the world as black gay trans men with a blond blue-eyed daughter.
Aiyyana is a Haudenosaunee grandmother who was born male and has journeyed through genders and considers herself a transformed woman. An accomplished writer and award-winning theatre artist, Aiyyana is building a home on her childhood reserve along with one of her adult children.
Originally from Alberta, Jenna is a 30-year-old trans-mother-to-be who runs an organic farm with her partner near Montreal. We learn about her path to motherhood, and witness the hours following the arrival of her baby.
Stefonknee is a trans woman who came out when her 7 children were almost all teenagers. The process of finding herself and going public has been too much for most of her family to bear. She has moved to Toronto from rural Ontario where she is a speaker and activist. We follow her on a visit to her hometown as she tries to heal broken connections.
Hershel, a Jewish trans man in his late 60s, is a psychotherapist whose son was 19 years old when he transitioned. We witness their loving and at times difficult relationship as both speak candidly about their experiences as parent and child over the last fifteen years.
TRANSGENDER PARENTS is a follow up film to the short TRANSFORMING FAMILY.
TRANSGENDER PARENTS - SCREENINGS
2019 L’Etnogràfica, Barcelona, SPAIN
2017 Octubre Trans Mad, Madrid, SPAIN
2016 World Prof. Assoc. of Transgender Health (WPATH), NETHERLANDS
2016 Cinéma dans la parc, Montréal, QC
2016 SpurFest, Winnipeg, MB
2016 Cinema Politica, Halifax, NS
2015 Melbourne LGBT Festival, AUSTRALIA
2015 Perlen Queer Film Festival, Hannover, GERMANY
2015 Queer Film Festival, Bremen, GERMANY
2015 Sonntags Club, Berlin, GERMANY
2015 XART Splitta Festival, Berlin, GERMANY
2015 Kju Point Film Festival, Halle, GERMANY
2015 Amnesty International, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2015 Mix Film Festival, Copenhagen, DENMARK
2015 Miama TransArt Festival, FL, USA
2015 TransScreen Film Festival, Amsterdam, HOLLAND
2015 Trans Health Conference, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2015 Cinema Politica, St John’s, NFLD
2015 Community Screening, Budapest, HUNGARY
2015 Seattle Transgender Film Festival, WA, USA
2015 UBC & Midwives Association, Vancouver, BC
2015 Classroom Closet Conference, Sudbury, ON
2015 Cinema Politica, Winnipeg, MB
2015 GenderReel Film Festival, New York, NY, USA
2014 Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines, ON
2014 GenderReel Film Festival, Omaha, NE, USA
2014 GenderReel Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2014 GenderReel Film Festival, Long Beach, CA, USA
2014 GenderReel Film Festival, Durham, NC, USA
2014 CBC’s DOC Channel PREMIERE