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Trapped in a questionable medical facility, a trans woman undergoes attempted forced conversion therapy. This is her fight to maintain her true identity, fighting against being mistaken for someone she’s not.

Directed by Nathan Thompson

Written by Chilli Kellaway

Cast: Lola Battle, Mckenna Bird, Sean Michael Cummings, Alexis Rea

Director Statement
What is it about our culture, our definition of what it means to be human, that relies so heavily upon our fear of “the other”? Why do we feel the need to dehumanize those we don’t understand or whose identity diverges from our own?

This is a story. A story of difference. A story of how a narrow group of medical “professionals” has chosen to try to “fix,” or convert that difference of identity into what they consider normal. A story also of resistance to being defined by this limited conceit of identity. A story of survival, of fighting for a true identity, of combating isolation with an imagined, soulful, hopeful ideal.

This is also a story of trauma. A story of prolonged separation and isolation from loving support that wears away at what it means for Audrey to be truly Audrey. A story that is repeated all too often.

I grew up during social protests about homosexuals being allowed to teach in public elementary schools. I grew up hearing claims that homosexuality is contagious. While medical science has repeatedly disproved this as a complete denial of scientific truth, we are still trying to find our scapegoats.

I am a straight, white man who receives the privileged societal benefits of that identity. Both of my children identify as queer. Neither of them has had to face the specific trauma of this story, but they have had to face many others. I want the world and our society to be a safer space for them, and an accepting space for who they truly are.

This story was brought to me four years ago as a student script worthy of production. No one in my classes felt capable of telling the story adequately so I took it on. It was shot in the Spring of 2019 then shelved due to other commitments. I was hopeful that our society would have grown and developed so that this story wouldn’t need to be finished. I was wrong. This is perhaps more pertinent now with the rekindled hate-speech targeting the transgender community.

When can we release our scapegoats, our fears of otherness? When can we celebrate our own true identities and identities different than our own?