‘Trans
Generation’ series lacks action,
substance
By Jamie Rowe
Online Forty-Niner
Editor in Chief
While many films can get rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, the documentary
series “Transgeneration” is mediocre at best. An eight-part series
shown on the Sundance Channel made available on DVD March 28 doesn’t really
do much coverage of hard-hitting issues.
The series follows four college students as they start their lives as the other
sex. TJ is an Armenian female to male transgender (ftm) graduate student from
Cyprus attending Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. Lucas, another
ftm, attends the all-female Smith College in North Hampton, Mass. Gabbie is a
male to female transgender (mtf) resident assistant attending the University
of Colorado at Boulder. Raci is an mtf president’s scholar attending Cal
State Los Angeles.
The whole documentary feels like an extended version of MTV’s “True
Life” series. Each person’s story is told through a combination of
clips and caption screens. There isn’t much of an in depth look at any
one person, but that should be a small wonder with each episode only lasting
30 minutes.
The superficiality continues with a lack of action. For instance, while some
of the students say they are politically active in getting transgender rights,
the documentary never really shows them doing anything about it. The series only
shows people being supportive of the transgender students and none of the opposing
arguments.
The most controversial topic, being an ftm at an all-female school, was barely
even touched on. It was obviously important part of Lucas’ life.
“
I’m the one who has to carry around a Smith diploma for the rest of my
life and explain that to people,” he said during the introductory episode.
The most the documentary shows of this topic is that Lucas meets with the Smith
dean after writing a letter complaining about his treatment.
The makers of “Transgener-ation” tried to cover too many things.
Had they simply focused on the decision to start hormone therapy or move on to
surgical procedures and the effects of those decisions on family and friends,
they would have a stronger piece about what it is like to be a man trapped in
a woman’s body or vice versa.
Another major issue is the choice of which people to follow. Lucas and TJ, along
with Lucas’ friend Kasey, come off as very mature and thinking their decisions
out. These three are older, either graduating college or working on a master’s
degree. Kasey has been taking hormones for eight months and has his breast liposuctioned
during the filming. Lucas decides to start hormones after talking about it with
his friends and family. TJ decides to not do any of it to spare his mother and
sister from any potential out casting from the Armenian community on Cyprus.
Raci, 18, and Gabbie, 19, are as whiney as a gaggle of tweens begging for more
allowance. Raci is a little more mature about being an mtf and trying to be responsible
about hormone therapy.
Gabbie has convinced her parents to pay for her sex reassignment surgery, but
afterward fails to dilate her vagina three times a day as her doctor told her
to. A lack of understanding about personal space causes a rift between Gabbie
and her friends, but also shows just how immature a person she is.
One of the few good things about this series was the interviews with the people
around each student, including friends, other students, professors and family.
These interviews really gave a sense of who each person is and how their need
to be the other sex affected them. It also put each student in a light outside
of being transgendered.
Over all this series isn’t anything to write home about. It doesn’t
present much of any new. Had each episode been an hour long, the subjects’ stories
could have been told more intricately.
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