From Beavis (M) to Beatrice (F)

From adoption and homelessness to navigating relationships and overcoming self-harm, the four transmen in MAN MADE all have something else in common: they are all bodybuilders. Through the lens of FTMFitCon, the world’s only FTM bodybuilding competition, we delve into the lives of Dominic, Rese, Mason, and Kennie as they define what it means to be a man while contextualizing that definition through the social, racial, and economic realities of their lives. For the men of MAN MADE, it’s not about winning—it’s about stepping on stage and being seen for everything they are.

From a young age, Natsuki knew she was a girl despite her sex assigned at birth. Against the backdrop of conservative Japanese society, this poignant docudrama tells her remarkable story of gender transition. Reflecting on her high school years, Natsuki interviews the supportive friends and family who supported her choices – and also confronts the people those who oppressed her freedom. Tracing Natsumi’s story to the present, this compelling portrait of gender identity in contemporary Japan offers insights of a layered experience in a complex society.

How does it feel to have your gender identity included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? Diagnosing Difference is a documentary featuring interviews with 13 diverse scholars, activists, and artists who identify on the trans spectrum (transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, and gender variant) about the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder (GID) on their lives and communities.

This documentary is set in the New Marilyn night club in Tokyo, Japan - where the hosts are transgender men. They can only make their living as hosts in a nightclub with other wannabes like them. The young women who come there often have relationships with them but the underlying fear is whether such a relationship can withstand the pressures on a girl to get married and have children. All three boys deal with this in different ways. These three hosts, the Shinjuku Boys, take us into their lives.

A young transgender Christian man in rural North Carolina and his girlfriend face significant challenges.

"Renee" tells the story of Renee Richards' battle to enter the 1977 U.S. Open as the first transgender 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 transgender field, a story of perseverance, breakthrough and hardship unfolds.

Fascinating documentary examination of a small Colorado town’s transformation from Wild West outpost to “sex-change capital of the world” which follows three transgender women who may steer the rural ranching town toward becoming the “transsexual mecca.”

Jeniffer Rocha, a black trans woman, landless farmer and performer, guides us on a journey through her life-performance and struggle.

Tamara, Desirée, and Victoria are Venezuelan women who live in Caracas and at first glance have little in common. However, all three share much more than the city they live in: they carry an ID that shows a name that is not theirs. They are transgender women. In Venezuela, you cannot legally change the name you were born with. The women unite and through a series of legal actions and tireless activism for equality, these women will test the willingness of Venezuelan institutions to ensure the basic right of its citizens: the right to identity.

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.

A documentary that shows a body in social and family isolation, but the distance is not caused by the coronavirus, but by being a transvestite. Renata Carvalho is a character of herself, her voice tells us the historicity/transcestrality of her body and the structural transphobia.

TRANSINDIA is a moving documentary exploring the Transgender community also known as Hijras, in Ahmedabad, India. Transindia takes you on a journey on their true lifestyles, a discovery of their beliefs and cultures, and an insight in how they struggle to find a place in the Indian society.

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.

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.

Displaying the faces and voices of transgender youth, the documentary short shows the authenticity of queer and trans people living in Toronto, while simultaneously discussing the struggles for self-acceptance that people who do not conform to cisgender and heteronormative ideals of gender face. Andy Nguyen, trans director and film student, captures his trans friends in their natural state on 16mm film shot on a Bolex h16 camera. Accompanied by narration written and recited by Salem Rao, this film represents that trans people exist and this is what we look like. Regardless of the obvious everyday transphobia, trans people find community and uniqueness within each other and themselves.

Whoever wanted a sex reassignment surgery in the 1950's could do so in Casablanca, at French gynaecologist Georges Burou's clinic, without fear of psychological examination. The French transgender singer known as Coccinelle was one of the first to use Burou’s services, and many others followed. Michiel Van Erp’s film follows five women who underwent surgery during that time, just before the sexual revolution and the Gay Liberation movement of the 1960's. Intimate interviews reveal their lifestyle, what made them change their sex, how it influenced their lives, and how they cope with the unavoidable ageing.

Samantha, activist and octogenarian; Morgana, soprano in her 30s and Victory, influencer in her 20s. Three trans women from three different generations who have managed not only to belong but to stand out in society.

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

This intriguing documentary explores the sexuality of transmen and the changes they experience as a result of their gender transitions from female to male. Transmen and their partners divulge the most personal secrets of their sex lives in revealing conversations and intimate interviews. Some erotic scenes are shown.

"The Pearl" explores the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman against the backdrop of post-industrial logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. The film leans into the struggle of those who were reared and successful as men and have reached middle age or later with a burdensome secret that they can no longer keep.