An exuberant portrait of chosen sisters Mermaid and Milan, two emerging…
The Script - Queer Futures
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- Citation
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Blending personal interviews with dramatized genre recreations, The Script explores the complicated relationship between trans and nonbinary communities and medical providers regarding gender-affirming care. With a playful approach toward experimentation, the film examines the limits of language — and invites its participants and its audience to envision a liberated, gender-expansive future, beyond the rigidity of our current moment.
LITTLE WHITE LIES
"Queer Futures has its world premiere at CPH:DOX in the Special Presentations section"
“If Queer Futures sets the precedent for this kind of newly imagined queer documentary practice … aimed at centering joy and liberation instead of trauma … then the future is bright.”
SENSES OF CINEMA
"Queer Futures at CPH:DOX 2023: At World’s End"
FORD FOUNDATION
"Queer Futures among the social justice documentary film projects supported by Ford Foundation in 2022"
DEADLINE
"Exclusive: Multitude Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures have partnered on Queer Futures"
Citation
Main credits
Fryer, Brit (film director)
Schamus, Noah (screenwriter)
Cassingham, Colleen (film producer)
Devaney, Jess (film producer)
Other credits
Cinematography, Pete Quandt; editing, Viridiana Lieberman, Grace Mendenhall; music, Lydia Cornett.
Distributor subjects
LGBTQ+; Trans Issues; HealthcareKeywords
LGBTQ+,Trans Issues,trans,non-binary,nonbinary,gender affirming care,Healthcare; "The Script - Queer Futures"; GOOD DOCS
LA: You filled in our intake forms?
YÊN:Yes, it was very comprehensive.
LA:Yes, we want to make sure you tick off all the right boxes and… it looks like you did.
YÊN: So I’ll be able to-
LA: Not so fast. While I would be happy to treat you, I’m gonna need at least three letters: from your therapist, psychiatrist, and your PCP, all demonstrating that what you’ve self-declared to be your feelings about your gender and desire for transition are actually true. And then I’d be happy to talk with you about next steps, but… we don’t want to make a mistake, do we?
NOAH: And cut. That was perfect. That was great.
LA: Thanks!
YÊN: That’s good to hear.
NOAH: I think we can go for another take!
YÊN: Cool.
NOAH: Should we go for it?
KJ: So I’m a scholar of rhetoric.I’m particularly focused on transgender language practicesand archives.
Unidentified: Take one, mark.
KJ: When Harry Benjamin published The Transsexual Phenomenon in 1966, he had already been working with trans patients for decades at that point. But of course, through those interactions, he’s actively shaping the ways that people are describing themselves. It was meant to be a textbook for those in the medical field. Well, it won’t surprise you that trans folks got their hands on it pretty quickly. And it became, you know, some would call it the trans Bible, right. Because it was like the key that you needed to unlock the door of the medical establishment in order to get the care that you needed.
YÊN: Ooh!
NOAH: I know, it’s very…
LA: Wow. - Ooh!
NOAH: So this is your - both of your offices.
YÊN: Wow. –
LA: Ah, yes.
NOAH: It’s very moody.
YÊN: Cool. Can’t wait…I can’t wait to be interrogated.
NOAH: It’s gonna be so fun!
LA: It’s gonna be a blast.
GROUP IN UNISON: One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four, five. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One two. One two. One. One. One.
NOAH: Okay. Wow. I haven’t done that in years. How did that feel?
YÊN: That was cute.
NOAH: I mean, don’t switch the chair back, but you can sit back a little bit.
LA: While I would be happy to treat you I’ll need at least three letters from your therapist, psychiatrist, PCP… Okay cool.
RYDER: Whenever I would go to doctor appointments I feel like I would disassociate a little bit.
LA: I’m just like, all right, here we go. Time to be perceived. What’s going to happen?
LA: So what brings you in today?
YÊN: Um…I was hoping…I’m coming to you because I –
LA: You want my help.
YÊN: Yes.
LA: Well…that is what I am here to do. But I must ask… why?
YÊN: I’ve just always known from childhood that something was different about me.
LA: Different in what way?
YÊN: I’ve always known that I was born in the wrong body.
LA: Of course, many patients have expressed this feeling to me before.
NOAH: Cut.
BRIT: If Script One is true crime, it’s all about like interrogation. Then Script Two is like a psychological horror, which we’re sort of like touching on how weird these interactions can be in these offices?
NOAH: Yeah, I think we want it to feel uncanny, like that feeling where things seem on the surface like they are going well. But you get like that gut feeling that all is not well. Kind of based on all those interviews we did. It’s about that experience of like technically being seen and being, like, treated as a patient. But it’s still discomfiting.
BRIT: Right.
YÊN: That’s an H. Don’t you know doctor writing is not legible?
LA: So that’s… what?
YÊN: That’s your dosage. Don’t question my credibility.
LA: Okay!
RYDER: I remember my endocrinologist. I would hear all the time from her. She’s like, you want bigger muscles, right? Let’s up your dose. You want this, right? Let’s do that.
AUGUST: They kept trying to make me prove myself to them. They would ask me directly, well, what does it feel like to be a boy? And I was like, Don’t you know?
NOAH: Go for it.
AUGUST: I felt like I needed to portray this kind of suffering person who didn’t like makeup, didn’t like anything girly, hated the color pink. It felt like there were certain parts of my gender euphoria that I had to hide.
KJ: I would really be struck by how much they were already asking me bout being in the wrong body. Because they want that narrative, because they know that’s what they should be looking for. And that was not my experience.
LA: What I want to say, or like what I hope to one day say is that I walk into the office, I’m like, alright, [clap hands] it’s time to fuck it up. Like, it’s time to blow it up. Like, here’s what. Oh, you think that about me? Okay, surprise! And to, like, be, like, fearless. But in reality…I actually just succumb to the binary.
YÊN: Anyways, I got all your letters, so I think we can move forward.
LA: That’s great.
YÊN: Exciting, right? I’m going to make a man out of you. I’m joking. Mulan?
LA: Right, of course.
YÊN: I’m assuming you want all the traditional effects of HRT, so I’ll just mark all that down.
LA: Well, actually, I’m…
YÊN: Non-binary. I know. I read your files. But either way, we are gonna kick that nasty dysphoria in the butt, okay?
LA: Well I actually have questions about dosage and all that.
YÊN: Of course. But as I said, lots of patients are waiting for me. So we’ll just go with the normal dosage and we’ll see how you like it.
LA: Can I like call you if there are any issues?
YÊN: You can just check in with me through the patient portal. I’m just a direct message away. You can slide right into those DMs. Like I said, cool doctor. [paper rips] You can give this to the front desk.
NOAH: Cut. That was great. Did it feel okay?
YÊN: It was fun for me. [laughs]
LA: Yeah, it was fun for me too. And sad, but, like, fun to play the sad.
BRIT: We have interrogation, uncanny…
NOAH: And I think cozy or comfortable?
BRIT: Comfortable.
NOAH: Or at least, you know, from the interviews, the way that they’re receiving care in an informed consent model is like much closer to ideal.
BRIT: Right.
NOAH: So I think we want it to feel a little like homier and kinder, and like a sense of connection.
NYSS: I am the expert on myself because who else lives in my head 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you know, 52 weeks a year. Who else is here all the damn time?
SONIA: I realized that there is some gender non-conformity in myself when I was in therapy. When I just told my therapist, it’s kind of funny, but sometimes when I think of myself in my head, I think of a girl. I just said it like totally nonchalantly and then she’s like, okay, yeah, it seems like there is some gender fluidity there, just like matter of factly. And that fact alone really changed my life to bring this thing that I had previously suppressed and been so ashamed of. And so she was able to see that in me without pathologizing it, without stigmatizing it. But from that point on, my therapist wasn’t really of much use. Or maybe that’s a little bit disparaging, but she was a cis woman and she just didn’t know enough. She hadn’t had the kind of specialized education.
KJ: Because it’s not just the patient who should be changing for the provider, it’s the provider who should be adapting to the patients as well. And so really thinking about: this as a dynamic relationship, is so critical for trans folks, especially given our historical experiences of having to be subjected to rather than really taking part in our own care in an authentic way that has real power with it.
NOAH:: Deep breath in. And action.
LA: It’s so lovely to see you again.
YÊN: Thanks. It’s really nice to see you, too.
LA: How are things going?
YÊN: Really well, I think. Yeah.
LA: Tell me more.
YÊN: I mean, it’s just been so wonderful having space and time with community and really getting to play and explore gender and just feeling so expansive.
LA: I’m so happy to hear that. So we’re here to check your levels?
YÊN: Yes. And…
LA: And?
YÊN: I think I want to go up! On my dose.
LA: Great.
YÊN: It just feels like it makes sense for me right now, so.
LA: I’m happy to up your dose. We’ll just talk a bit more about potential side effects from going up, but I can write your prescription today and you can get started.
YÊN: That would be so amazing. Thank you so much. It feels so nice being in the driver’s seat, if that makes sense.
LA: Mhm. Do you any other questions? [Yên vocalized ‘no’]
SONIA: [sighs] Yeah, I…I don’t think this is the only way. I don’t believe that transness or dysphoria is something like a disorder or a disease or something like that, that some people have that needs to be diagnosed. I’m really grossed out by this whole idea, actually, this whole diagnostic process.
NOAH: I want to be able to answer all the questions that we’re asking about trans health care and gender and performance. And it’s just like this tangled yarn that like, I want someone to unfurl because like, I want the future to be better.
BRIT: The idea of just like exploring this and attempting to like untangle is in some ways like an answer, even if it’s maybe not an answer, it’s an invitation. It’s like an open door to say, like, okay, we have these questions. They’re worth exploring, and like, they could think about a world without scripts. Like maybe that’s how we move forward is like having more people have the same questions.
NYSS: It is that freedom to remake yourself in your own image without anyone else telling you what to do or defining it. There definitely should be sort of a middle point where the medical community offers what is available and people can see what’s right for them.
SONIA: We can’t have healthy relationships with our bodies until the full breadth of bodies that inhabit different genders is recognized. In truth, humanity is incredibly messy and incredibly fluid. This is why we need artists, in addition to scientists and biologists. We need poets and painters and everyone who is creatively working at the places where language fails us. Language is too fixed, is too temporal, is too individualist to capture reality which is always in flux, which is always in transition. Always in conversation with other people. The past, present, and the future.
