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Not Your Skin - Trans Documentary Film

Documentary film about the transgender community and the struggles trans men and women face everyday

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Not Your Skin - Trans Documentary Film

Not Your Skin - Trans Documentary Film

Not Your Skin - Trans Documentary Film

Not Your Skin - Trans Documentary Film

Not Your Skin - Trans Documentary Film

Documentary film about the transgender community and the struggles trans men and women face everyday

Documentary film about the transgender community and the struggles trans men and women face everyday

Documentary film about the transgender community and the struggles trans men and women face everyday

Documentary film about the transgender community and the struggles trans men and women face everyday

Ester Brym
Ester Brym
Ester Brym
Ester Brym
2 Campaigns |
Los Angeles, United States
$4,710 USD 71 backers
19% of $24,300 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Choose your Perk
featured

FOR THE LOVE OF SKYPE

$205 USD
3 claimed

LOVE

$10 USD
5 claimed

LOVE AND CARD

$25 USD
7 claimed

LOVE AND VIEW

$55 USD
3 claimed

FOR THE LOVE OF DVD

$85 USD
3 claimed

LOVE AND THANKS

$110 USD
9 claimed

FOR THE LOVE OF EDUCATION

$380 USD
0 claimed

VIP LOVE

$500 USD
0 out of 5 of claimed

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

$1,000 USD
0 out of 3 of claimed

Executive Producer

$2,500 USD
0 out of 2 of claimed
Highlights
Mountain Filled 2 Projects Mountain Filled 2 Projects

Our film

We want to tell the story of the transgender community right. We do it by following ordinary people and sharing their life stories. Not everybody has access to proper care, therapy, medical procedures and most importantly, not every trans person is even accepted by their closest family and friends.

Acceptance and understanding is key to survival. The suicide rate among transgender people is tragic, they are forced to live a lie every day just to get jobs, housing or even if they want to serve in the military. They have to pretend they are somebody else...

The trans people we are following are just ordinary folks that come from all different social backgrounds. They live and they love. There is lots of love. They range from 16 to 70 years old and their very different experiences demonstrate the need to educate the society about their lives and struggles. 

We hate what we don't know. This film should help everyone get to know these people, understand their struggles and help them survive by being accepting.

We Need Your Help

To show everybody's perspective, we chose to tell the story of 7 people. We filmed 4 of them so far. 

One of our men is going to have his sex reassignment surgery this summer and we would like to travel with him and document his progress and recovery. Two of the girls are in Texas and we still need to film their lifestory. 

Your generous donations will help us continue working with our crew and cover the travel expenses to get all the footage we need. We don't want to tell just half of the story. Please help us make this happen. You too can make a difference by being part of this film.

Every $5,000 we raise lets us share another person's story with you. More lives we show, more people will be able to identify with the community. No donation is too small. Every help gets us closer to little part of our goal.

These Are Our Experts

Thomas Satterwhite M.D.

Dr Satterwhite, a Diplomate of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, obtained his Bachelor’s Degree and Medial Degree at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA. Dr. Satterwhite’s expertise is in all aspects of gender confirmation surgery for transwomen and transmen.

Helen Grusd PhD

PhD Helen Grusd is Los Angeles based therapist that offers her services and expertise mainly to transgender clients. She deals with depression, anxiety disorder, stress management, trauma etc. 

These Are Our Characters So Far

1) Nicole Maines is 18 year old student at University of Main. Together with her identical brother Jonas and her family, they have been figthing for transgender rights since she was 5 years old. In 2009 her family filed a lawsuit against her former school for discrimination, which they won in 2014. In 2015, Pullitzer Winning author Amy Ellis Nut wrote Becoming Nicole, book about her Nicole’s transition. Nicole is the spokes person for GLAD on trans issues.

2) Lisa Foster and CJ Foster

After coming out at her 20s as transgender, Lisa didn’t feel the society was for ready for her. She lived as Ron, went to military, got married and raised children. When her spouse passed away, it was finally time for Lisa to start living the life she always wanted. She started hormone therapy and had both her top and bottom surgery done.

CJ came out as lesbian early on but never felt true to herself. When CJ finally came out to his family as transgender, he started his transition to becoming CJ. He is now happily married to Lisa and awaits his bottom surgery this summer.

3) Lindsie Carlsen is 70 years old and retired. She worked her whole life in a film lab, married, had children and lived the all American life. With only only exception. She was a female, living in a male body. After the divorce from her second wife was final, Lindsie was ready to come out. She now enjoys life as wonderful transsexual woman in Hollywood.

The Impact

We are putting this project together to prevent further discrimination and constant violence toward the trans community, and shake the staggering number of suicides among these men and women.

By highlighting everyday accomplishments and struggles of the main characters, the film hopes to bring the transgender community closer to the general public and encourage its mainstream acceptance. The filmmakers hope to feature the little things in life and basic human happiness as connecting factor between transgender community and those that don’t have opportunities to relate and be in similar relationship. Each and everyone of the featured characters will become your best friend at the end of the film as one cannot help themselves but fall in love with their human kindness, bravery and passion to live ordinary lives.

We will use the finished film for activism and we hope to help change some of the current standing laws as well as health insurance policies regarding transgender procedures. We want to screen at schools, we want to educate students, teacher and their parents. We want to get this story our there, and with your help, we can.

The Filmmakers

Director: Ester Brym

Not Your Skin (working title) is Brym’s 3rd feature documentary. Her first film Butterflies profiling the lives of YouTube celebrities have received numerous festival awards and have been broadcasted all over the world. Brym’s 2nd film guided viewers through the travels along USA historic highway Route 66 in her award winning Autumn of Route 66. Brym works as an editor in Los Angeles.

Executive Producer: Tom Duty

Duty’s career as a producer and online editor bring technical expertise as well as passion for every untold story. When not working on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, he ventures out into the independent film world and makes movie magic happen.


Other Ways You Can Help

Besides financial donations, there are numerous other ways you can help us bring this project to the big screen:

  • Share the link to our campaign with 5 of your closest friends. Email them.
  • Join our Facebook page and ask people to LIKE.
  • Tweet about this project and share our teaser with your followers.
All perks to be delivered in 2017 unless stated otherwise.
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