From pain to joy — filmmakers capture transgender experience in New Brunswick
During several stops in New Brunswick, Montreal-based team gathers voices for their documentary
Vivian Myers-Jones vividly recalls changing her driver's licence, seeing her name and gender listed correctly for the first time, and breaking down in tears — one of her most memorable moments of "trans joy."
After her previous photo was taken in 2019, Myers-Jones started coming out as a woman. She describes that period as the point where her gender dysphoria — when the gender one is assumed to be at birth doesn't fit with how they feel — was at "the most extreme," resulting in mental health struggles, including suicide ideation and one attempt.
In the previous photo, she said, "you could actually see that stress on my face and just see how much pain I was in."
When she saw the new picture, she was overcome with emotion.
"I had come so far at that point, and it was a great emotional and spiritual triumph to see myself as myself."
Myers-Jones was one of a handful of New Brunswickers who shared their stories in a group interview for a documentary project about transgender Canadians. At the helm of the project are Montrealers Dawson Ovenden-Beaudry and Cleo Voron.
The two packed themselves and their dog into a van and set off to travel Canada from east to west to gather voices for their film project Trans Canada — a pun on the pair traveling the Trans Canada highway for transgender voices.
They made stops recently in Saint John, Moncton and Fredericton to gather interviews for their project.
Beauty and resilience
From capturing the personal stories of their participants to asking their thoughts on the current political climate toward transgender people in their home provinces, their goal is to represent the "full spectrum" of transgender experiences.
They often end their sessions by asking participants to describe a moment of trans joy.
"We want to pass a message of the struggles of the trans community which is true — they do exist — but also the beauty and the resilience of the trans community," said Voron.
Humanizing trans experiences
To participant Oak Rodgerson, trans joy is being able to connect with other transgender people where they can simply be themselves without having to hide.
Rodgerson says the question of joy is "hugely important."
"When we talk about trans rights, and just queer rights and the rights of any minority group, a lot of times we can focus on the negatives," they said.
This negative framing can be very damaging to marginalized communities, they said.
"When you allow for things in the media to showcase trans joy, or the joy and beautiful elements of the communities you're representing, it allows people to see you on a more human-to-human level and connect that way."
Ovenden-Beaudry says capturing a range of experiences is important because transgender lives are diverse.
"Trans people exist everywhere — we have that common experience of being trans, but we also have completely different experiences" he said.
Living "in a rural city, in a little town, in a village in Montreal — it is very different."
Ovenden-Beaudry and Voron are not shying away from showing hardship, particularly in New Brunswick with the recent controversial revision of education Policy 713.
The New Brunswick government changed the policy to no longer allow teachers to use a student's preferred name or pronoun without parental consent if they're under the age of 16 — a topic that has come up in every interview they've done here.
"There is a lot more fear here right now. People are scared [in New Brunswick] right now and they don't know what's going to happen to them," Ovenden-Beaudry said.
"We're meeting a bunch of different trans-identifying people, but for the most part they don't know each other," he said. "So they're all in their own individual lives experiencing this individually ... it can feel very lonely."
Breaking barriers
Myers-Jones wanted to be a part of this project because she hopes to break down barriers to understanding transgender identities.
"My hope is that it does help others — that there's no kind of stigma or fear or reservation about those of us who are trans," she said.
"That this is not a choice, not a lifestyle. This is something very hardwired in us, and it's something that is absolutely amazing about us, too."
Rodgerson, who grew up in a church environment, is excited to be sharing their story, but also anticipates possible backlash from their surrounding community.
"Some of the outcomes might be painful."
They hope their contribution will open doors for people to engage more openly with the transgender people in their lives.
"Please see us as humans and and understand that while it's not our or responsibility to educate you, a lot of us will"
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