Product Description What is it like to be a man trapped in a woman's body? How does a woman become a man? TRANSGENERATION, a dramatic and mesmerizing eight-part series, is a year-in-the-life look at four college students--Gabbie, Lucas, Raci, and T.S.--who are juggling the challenges of academia with their commitment to transition from their birth sex. Faced with life-altering choices--about how to deal with parents and society, whether or not to take hormone therapy and undergo sex re-assignment surgery--these four remarkable individuals deal with their deeply misunderstood identities in starkly unique ways. In every moment of this radical, paradigm-busting film, these collegiate transgendered students blow up stereotypes while coming to terms with how to change their bodies to fit their minds. DISC 1: EPISODE 1: Meet Raci, Gabbie, Lucas, & T.J. EPISODE 2: Lucas visits family & Raci seeks illegal hormones. EPISODE 3: T.J. & Lucas write home to explain their decisions EPISODE 4: Gabbie visits her grandparents & T.J. plans a trip home to Cyprus. EPISODE 5: Raci's class attendance drops while Lucas takes on campus politics. EPISODE 6: Raci openly attends a LGBT meeting as Lucas celebrates a turning point. DISC 2: EPISODE 7: Gabbie gets a pre-op dinner party and T.J. prepares to return home. EPISODE 8: One last visit with Raci, Gabbie, Lucas, & T.J. BONUS FEATURES .com Told with compassion and insight, the fascinating eight-episode documentary TransGeneration focuses on the lives of four college students struggling to fit into a society that doesn't understand why they are the way they are--that is, transgendered young adults trapped in bodies that belie their true selves. Gabbie and Raci deal with their issues in vastly different ways. Sex-reassignment surgery is expensive, and is a procedure many transgendered folks can't afford. But money is no object for Gabbie--the first-born son of an affluent family--and she literally counts the days until her scheduled treatment.She has no problem telling her classmates she's transgendered and believes surgically ridding herself of her penis will complete her life. Raci, also 19, is deaf and poor. An immigrant from the Philippines, she resorts to purchasing female hormone shots off the street because that's all she can afford. Though she's hopeful at the start of the school year that the kids are "tranny friendly," Raci lives in constant fear that she will be ostracized if her true identity is found out. When people ask her about the camera crew following her around, she mumbles that she's part of a documentary about women in college. The two female-to-male subjects are no less complicated. Lucas is tired of being asked about transsexuals and transgendered people, but he's also aware that as one of the few males at an all-female school (Smith College), people are curious about his beginning college as a woman and graduating as a man. A neuroscience major, he's worried about hormones potentially shaving years off his life. TJ, an Armenian grad student, is self-assured and a leader on campus. But when he calls his mother back home, he's reduced to an unsure child who doesn't want to disappoint his family. In Cyprus, where he grew up, TJ was known as Tamar, a gorgeous gamine of a girl. He wants to return home as TJ, but is worried about the ramifications against his mother in their tight knit community. Transitioning into adulthood is an awkward and painful phase for many teens, who're unsure of who they are and what they want to be. The four subjects of TransGeneration know they don't want to be what they were born as. The documentarians are careful not to present them as martyrs or perverts, but rather as full-dimensional people who're scared, curious, and hopeful about what the future holds in store for them. --Jae-Ha Kim
J**L
look around you
Most people aught to have noticed by now that not all girls are alike and not all boys are alike. Most people aught to have realized that in spite of some common (not absolute) denominators, there is a LOT of discrepancy along the gender spectrum. In fact, there would be even more were perceptions not pigeonholed by stereotypes, but that's an issue for another time. My point is, if you are a biological male or female you are generally insured a pretty broad range of gender expression without having to fear your gender will be questioned. Long before that, your sexuality would come under suspect.It makes me sick at heart that anyone could watch a program like this and still come away with such significant misconceptions as "so and so is not convincing as a female". I've known a lot of genetic women who could be considered unconvincing and have never had their gender marker challenged. I know tom boys who are straight, feminine men who are not gay, and masculine men and women who ARE gay. A person need only know how they personally identify to qualify for the right to be treated with the same respect as their non-transsexual peers. No sane person (and you can't transition through legal channels without being medically certified as sane) would put themselves through the unparalleled turmoil that a transsexual does if they didn't feel that it was paramount to their peace of mind. Try living your life - your whole life - in a Halloween costume and you might begin to get an INKLING of what a transsexual feels.The purpose of this program is to show you that it's not just the "wackos", not the people on the fringes of society who live their lives like a 24 hr rave party, not old men with wives and children going through a midlife crisis, who are transsexuals. It's ordinary people. Young and old. And this documentary does a better job of illustrating it than anything I've seen before by highlighting the lives of four different types of people from different walks of life and not angling for shock value or excessive drama.It disappoints me that people could watch this and still be left with narrow ideas about the way that things are. The reality is, the world is diverse, and diversity is beautiful. It disappoints me, but I know that I should be content if it changes minds and broadens perspectives even just a little bit, because that's a monumental accomplishment in its own right. And I believe that this program is capable of doing that. It is the quintessential resource among the available media on this subject, in my opinion, for introducing someone to a better understanding of transsexuality. So if you know a transsexual and want to understand it, or are one and want it understood, or simply have a thirst for knowledge or the motivation to challenge your beliefs, I recommend TransGeneration highly.Watch it. Share it. Help make the world better.
D**H
I need an update!!
Before I watched this movie, I had no understanding of the FTM and MTF trans-gendered of the world. But now I'm more open minded. I used to think it was just some taking it too far for life. Unfortunately the trans generation of today is being blown out of proportion, as more and more of the younger kids are claiming "I'm trans-gendered" when in actuality they are just doing what they think they should be doing as that's what society has told them they should do. The same for the actual gay community, being gay is in right now, so is being trans-gendered. A lot of the young "femmes" feel that they can date a "FTM" and still be considered str8, where the actuality is that they are still sleeping with a woman as the FTM they are into aren't really gay, but playing a role.But I would love to get an update at least every 6 months to a year to see how their lives are moving along. Either that or I'd love to met the participants in the documentary.
B**G
Insight to youth thinking
When one follows their body's (mind) calling (F to M or M to F) there is a price to pay. Mentally,friends, jobs, and money. This film gives insight to the problems youth face to change their body to the correct gender. I wanted to do it in 1963 but did not know what was bothering me. After the internet at the age of 73 I completed my change to a transwoman. I hope this film helps our youth to search for help if they are questioning their self. Billie
S**R
worth every penny
A very entertaining and useful documentary to my collection. You get drawn into the lives and struggles of the 4 students as they go thur their school year. Very useful to non TG who are trying to understand by showing them a "human" face to TG's struggles without it being dry like a normal documentary or fictionalize as in a movie.
L**K
Great film series!
This was such a great series and I wish TV would run it again! The young people were so ordinary and showed trans college students being themselves - as it should be. When people really get to know and like us as people, then the fear of LGBT or transgender folks will fade away.
A**R
Four Stars
A good look at how some of the younger trans people cope.
R**E
uneven series
TransGeneration is a valuable look into the lives of a number of undergraduate college students coming to terms with the fact that their biological sex does not match their sense of gender. It is somewhat uneven, with some segments more effective than others.
N**K
left me feeling empty
Although the documentation was well done, it left me feeling like I had left the movie theater without staying to see what happens at the end.
K**S
Every School Counsellor should have this!
Excellent resource for teenagers. As a school counsellor I can use this in my support groups.
