Being Unbound

This compelling and thought-provoking documentary provides riveting portraits of a diverse group of six men who once were women and chose to change their gender. The award-winning film is an unforgettable story of self-discovery and challenges all of us to re-examine the foundations of our ideas and feelings about gender, sexuality, and identity.

In Tennessee, and across the South, transgender people like Graham and Zeke face a daily struggle in their pursuit of equal protection under the law. From so-called 'bathroom bills' to laws restricting their ability to change their sex on legal documents, not to mention the personal and familial challenges as you transition, life is not easy nor fair for trans folk.

Tailor is a transgender cartoonist that shares in his web page other trans people’s experiences and their challenges in society. Film about transgender, made by transgender crew.

One transsexual man's personal memories of TS spaces and activism in the Toronto of the 1970s and 1980s.

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.

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.

"Last year in the summer, I was speaking to Kings-Lee Rose in my living room in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, about my transition. The drastic shift in social perception is quite destabilizing and ultimately isolating, because there aren't many people I can turn to who might have some understanding of what this shift could feel like. I'm 41, so the shift is drastic. Everything has changed, but everything is the same all at once. Kings-Lee then shared candidly his truth in his transition, and with his permission, I recorded the conversation. I took the recording and felt inspired to compose music around it. Over the course of a month, I used my iPhone to shoot slow-motion footage of my life on tour, as well as intimate moments with loved ones in my Queer and Trans community in Brooklyn..." - TYGAPAW

Being born a woman, feeling like a man & deciding to cross the boundary between the genders. That’s the path taken by those known as trans-boys. In San Francisco, Paris & Barcelona, a four-way portrait of Lynnee, Kaleb, Rocco & Miguel, four individuals who embody & explore the fluidity of gender.

A Portuguese documentary about Isaac dos Santos, a 20-year-old going through the process of gender transition. From a very young age, Isaac realized that he did not identify with the female sex, having decided to change his life and his body when he was only 18 years old. The documentary lets you see the whole process of Isaac's transformation, a hard but rewarding journey marked by his strong charisma and determination.

Follows a young man as he travels the mountain kingdom of Lesotho showing his film in remote villages, schools and communities. Sheriff was born with a girl’s body, but as the grandmother in his film recounts, he refused to wear dresses and always wanted to play with the boys.

Part comedy special, part oral history, part love letter to becoming your true self, Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps chronicles two decades of Emmy-nominated creator/performer Scott Turner Schofield’s life as an out transgender man. With a knowing nod to the often-overlooked comedy of transitioning, the film reflects on the many layers of becoming oneself, exploring nuanced truths and breaking important new ground in trans representation. Twice censored (so far) and arriving amid a cultural and legislative reckoning, the film resists simplification in what it explores, how it tells the story, and the form it takes. Instead, Schofield brings vulnerability, wit, and presence to the details of his own life, connecting the personal to the universal and reminding audiences of all we share. Funny, profound, and fiercely honest, Becoming a Man in 127 EASY Steps celebrates complexity and invites viewers to consider, more deeply and compassionately, what becoming—and being—a man can mean.

This short film shot in a small town in Sweden navigates themes of nostalgia through an original monologue, reflecting on gender identity struggle and the pursuit of a new beginning in a foreign land.

My Transparent Life chronicles the journey of one trans man, one trans woman and a trans couple as transition from the sex they were born with to the sex they identify with.

Upon his arrival in Paris, filmmaker Tomas Cali immerses himself in learning French, as well as the language of sketching. In an art studio, he meets transgender life model Linda Demorrir, who helps him to connect with himself and his new city in a profoundly different way.

Sex reassignment surgery is now almost a commonplace procedure, but back in the early 20th century, it was seen as 'science fiction surgery'. When the news broke of a successful first attempt, it was a sensation. This is the gripping story of three extraordinary people: the world's first person to undergo a female to male transition; the former Spitfire pilot who became Britain's first to transition from male to female; and the daring advanced plastic surgeon who carried out these surgeries in the 1940s. Michael Dillon - previously named Laura - had persuaded the brilliant Sir Harold Gillies, the founding father of plastic surgery, to carry out the female-to-male operation that no surgeon in the world had ever attempted. Both then helped former race car driver and wartime pilot Robert Cowell undertake their own transition.

In a small and conservative city in Jalisco, Alex builds his identity and defends his dreams: fatherhood, music, being a man.

Tobin, a transgender teen living in Squamish, BC, prepares for his acting debut where he’ll be playing a male leading character in the youth play. While rehearsals are in progress, his friends and chosen family band together to help remove him from a difficult living situation and connect him the support he needs.

Couples Ari and Caitlin and Myles and Precious experience the joy of a transgender pregnancy when Ari and Myles, the men in their relationships, become pregnant.

Filmed in the city of Memphis, Tennessee, this documentary tells the stories of four twentysomethings who are living their lives under the scrutiny and judgment often faced by those who clash with mainstream gender norms. Lizzy G, Kyta, and Yella Man are lesbian studs, and Ashton is an out trans man. While Lizzy G struggles to overcome abuse from her past, Kyta wants to free herself from her Asian family's expectations about her future. Ashton is navigating the tribulations of transition. And Yella Man? She's just trying to have a good time.

A documentary that explores the range of experiences lived by transgender Americans.