Ian Harvie: Superhero

A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

Sereena confronts stigma and stereotypes on a daily basis being a transsexual in today’s society. In this short hybrid documentary, Sereena refuses to justify who she is and turns it back onto us and asks – what do you see when you look at her and can you look past the superficial and see the real her?

Former child prodigy James Harries and his family may at first sight seem to be a houseful of geniuses, but although every single member has a Ph.D. in Metaphysics, we soon discover that some were purchased from a fake university in the USA, while the others were awarded to them by themselves. They regard themselves as morally, intellectually, and financially superior to the rest of society, even though the clan (housed in a mock mock-Tudor cottage in the middle of a Cardiff council estate) includes a convicted arsonist, an astral projectionist, a former Bunny Girl, a part-time private detective and a transgender daughter (James is now Lauren), all of whom seem to live their lives in a parallel universe.

Ewa Hołuszko is a remarkable figure. In the 1980s she bore the male name of Marek Hołuszko, an active Solidarity movement activist. After 1989 she could not fully enjoy the regained freedom as the place of communism was taken by another enemy, more difficult to defeat, intolerance and exclusion. Gender change made her realize how far away Polish society is from full freedom. Nevertheless, she still believes that it is possible to live in a different Poland, free from stigmatization, persecution and prejudice against others.

Mari is a woman trapped in a man’s body. She tells us about life as a transsexual in Cuba and all the pain that comes with it: parental rejection, the men she’s loved who hurt her deeply, unscrupulous doctors… But she continues to fight, trying to make her life just a little better every day.

Pioneering trans writer Max Wolf Valerio talks about his life and experience of transition in this groundbreaking documentary short, one of the very first portraits of a trans man on film, directed and produced by noted filmmaker Monika Treut.

When working in Tokyo, Erika embarks on the journey of stepping outside the role prescribed by her biological sex and relieving the suppressed feminine self. This film documents Erika’s life journey of gradually building up her ideal body image, including the sexual reassignment surgery (SRS). Through Erika’s experience moving between Japan and Taiwan, as well as male and female identities, the film sheds light on the unique life experience of transgender people.

In New York City, detective Luigi Mackeroni investigates a string of mysterious penile mutilations at the Hotel Quickie. After Mackeroni attempts to have a tryst with a gigolo he meets in the lobby, a carniverous condom bites off his right testicle and flees, which sets the detective off on a quest to stop the predatory prophylactic once and for all.

Many of us assume that there are only two genders and that being female or male follows from the sex of our biological bodies. Focusing on the art, photography and performances of four "alternative" gender artists Assume Nothing poses the questions: "What if "male" and "female" are not the only options?

Portrait of the last year of the life of famous New York drag queen Consuela Cosmetic.

Stonewall veterans (including prominent trans activist Sylvia Rivera) and HIV-positive New Yorkers take up residency on the Hudson River piers as cranes raze vacant buildings for a new skyline.

When JD is fired from his dull desk job his old buddies promise him the best vacation of his life. He can't refuse this one-time opportunity and travels to the sizzling heart of Thailand. Together with Gordon Goldman and John Walker he ends straight up in the city of sin: Pattaya. Soon the hooker count stacks as high as the amount of alcohol in his blood and JD gets more and more frustrated that his body isn't coping too well with the heat. His situation doesn't get any better when his buddies go away on some important business leaving JD alone in the land of a thousand smiles. Not knowing much else than ordering alcoholic beverages, JD soon drinks till he passes out. When he wakes up, he's in the middle of the jungle and can't remember anything from the night before. And while fighting his way back to civilization, he gets more and more tangled up in an ordeal he understands nothing of.

Filmed over five years in Kansas City, this documentary follows four transgender kids – beginning at ages 4, 7, 12, and 15 – as they redefine “coming of age.” These kids and their families show us the intimate realities of how gender is re-shaping the family next door in a unique and unprecedented chronicle of growing up transgender in the heartland.

REAL BOY is the coming-of-age story of Bennett Wallace, a transgender teenager on a journey to find his voice-as a musician, a friend, a son, and a man. As he navigates the ups and downs of young adulthood, Bennett works to gain the love and support of his mother, who has deep misgivings about her child's transition. Along the way, he forges a powerful friendship with his idol, Joe Stevens, a celebrated transgender musician with his own demons to fight.

Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes a personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an “internationally ignored” but divinely talented rock diva, inhabiting a “beautiful gender of one.”

A true Canadian iconoclast, acclaimed transgender country/electro-pop artist Rae Spoon revisits the stretches of rural Alberta that once constituted “home” and confronts memories of growing up queer in an abusive, evangelical household.

Transgender Blake and cisgender Cane hang out, play video games and grapple with their insecurities. This is their love story.

THE PEARL is a cinematic and intimate portrait of four transgender women who come out in their senior years. Set in logging towns in the Pacific Northwest, the visceral, observational story explores what it means to leave behind presenting as a man.

Viviana Rocco is a photographer, visual artist, activist, model, actress and trans woman. This documentary takes us inside her life so that through her work she can show us the trans world and give voice to those who are part of a minority.

Serena is drawing the portrait of Enzo. In a cozy and intimate atmosphere, he tells us his story. This life is extraordinary, because it is a life of a Female-To-Man (FTM) transgender.