• Beyond the Opposite Sex

    Directed by Emily Abt
    Co-Director: Bruce Hensel

    US | 89 minutes | World Premiere | True Stories

  • Beyond the Opposite Sex

    Directed by Emily Abt
    Co-Director: Bruce Hensel

    US | 89 minutes | World Premiere | True Stories

  • Beyond the Opposite Sex

    Directed by Emily Abt
    Co-Director: Bruce Hensel

    US | 89 minutes | World Premiere | True Stories

  • Beyond the Opposite Sex

    Directed by Emily Abt
    Co-Director: Bruce Hensel

    US | 89 minutes | World Premiere | True Stories

Two frank, honest and illuminating love stories follow a trans man and a trans woman in heartland America, focusing less on the process of transitioning and more on the challenges of maintaining relationships in that often hostile environment.

film synopsis

Frank, honest and illuminating, Beyond the Opposite Sex follows two love stories, one of a trans man and one of a trans woman. Formerly Jim, a macho man raising a 12-year-old daughter, Michigan-bred Jamie is now a sensitive singer/songwriter (and Trump supporter), living in Kentucky with her girlfriend, after having several affairs with men. Since transitioning, woman-to-man Rene, a spirited, angry Texan, has left one girlfriend and started a new relationship.

Fifteen years ago, two acclaimed Showtime documentaries chronicled the experiences of these two people; this is the revelatory follow up film. It goes beyond the usual documentaries about the process of transitioning to focus on the challenges of building and maintaining relationships in hostile heartland America. How will Rene’s fiancée’s family react when they find out that her boyfriend was born a girl? How do Jamie and her female partner survive in a town where it is too dangerous for them to hold hands?

film details

Director: Emily Abt
Co-Director: Bruce Hensel
Producers: Bruce Hensel, Stuart Krasnow, Francine Bergman, Linda S. York
Cinematographers: Wolfgang Held
Editor: Ken Schneider
Music: Eric Holland
Country: US
Language: English
Year: 2018
Running Time: 89 minutes
Premiere Status: World Premiere

2018 Film Festival