Boy I Am

Directed by Sam Feder and Julie Hollar
Women Make Movies

Boy I Am is a feature-length documentary that looks at the experiences of three female-to-male transgender men - Nicco, Norie and Keegan - following them throughout some major events of their transitions, including starting testosterone and getting chest surgery. The film also includes feminists, lesbians, activists and theorists voicing their opinions and questions about trans issues.

I saw this film when it came to Chicago and played at a local theater. For me, as a trans person, the experience of seeing the movie was both validating and exciting to finally watch a film that dared to address the many conflicts that exist within the queer and feminist communities over trans issues. Many times there is resistance from queer women or the feminist community, who may see transitioning as a fad or as an anti-feminist act of gaining male privilege. This film begins to look at and promote dialogue about these views.

I appreciated that the filmmakers included these sometimes transphobic views as a way to illustrate many of the ideas that people really do have and to begin to break them down for discussion. I felt the blend of personal experience, contrasted with theory, worked to give a rounded out, realistic exploration of trans issues and conflicts. One point that the film seems to aspire to make is the idea that if feminists truly believe that people should have the right to control their own bodies, then they should logically fight for, not against, transgendered people to be accorded those same rights. During the discussion with the filmmakers afterwards, many of the criticisms of the movie involved why the filmmakers didn't try for a broader scope for the people chosen for the movie. However, I think this can be said about any documentary and, really, you can only do so much with one film. These criticisms just seemed to me to indicate the crowd's desire to see a wider variety of transgender portrayals in the media.

Boy I Am was an empowering film to watch and made a convincing argument for all to support and fight for transgender rights because, as the last quotation on the screen summed it up best, “to be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

Review by Lesley Kartali