{"id":2400,"date":"2023-03-17T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/03\/17\/documentary-transgender-pregnancy-birth\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T18:47:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T18:47:55","slug":"documentary-transgender-pregnancy-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/niemanstoryboard.org\/2023\/03\/17\/documentary-transgender-pregnancy-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"A doc film that gently unspools surprises"},"content":{"rendered":" \n
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To tell this story of craft, I must share something which might ruin your first-time viewing of the short documentary film \u201cVictoria,\u201d<\/a> by Eloisa Diez. So if you haven\u2019t already watched it and don\u2019t like spoilers, here is a piece of advice: Watch the film first, and then get back to what I learned in a conversation with Diez.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cVictoria\u201d was showed at several film festivals around the world, then was featured as part of The New York Times Op-Doc project, which features award-winning short documentaries by independent filmmakers. In the opening scene, we  meet Alex Reyes de Anda. He lives in Jalisco, Mexico, a traditional town centered around the Catholic church. He works as a biochemist at the local hospital, sings in the church choir and talks with his partner, Fernanda, about having a family. The film conveys a quotidian life, told through quiet scenes of singing, family meals and conversations about mundane matters.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\"Documentary
Filmmaker Eloisa Diez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div> \n
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But soon it stars unwrapping surprises that are offered like small gifts to the viewer: Alex, who was born female, is well into the process of realizing his lifelong dream of being male. He has taken hormone treatments, had top surgery, sports a beard and speaks in a mild, mid register.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As the movie unspools over 23 minutes, so do the reveals that shape Alex\u2019s life. Before his transition, Alex was helping parent his then-partner\u2019s daughter; soon after he began his transition, the woman left and and denied him contact with the toddler. We start to hear his gentle dreams of creating a new family. And then we learn that Alex is receiving fertility treatments. He gets pregnant and gives birth by C-section to a girl, Victoria. The infant is cleaned, swaddled and placed in his waiting arms with a nurse\u2019s coo: \u201cSay hello to your father.\u201d Alex\u2019s voiceover cuts in: \u201cShe is a victory over the impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Reconsidering stereotypical approaches to stories<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Because of the story\u2019s structure \u2014 like a flower opening from bud to blossom \u2014 we don\u2019t know immediately that Alex is a trans man. There are occasional references to fertility treatments, but it\u2019s not immediately clear that they are about Alex\u2019s desire to give birth. It isn\u2019t until the last third of the film that we learn that Alex is pregnant \u2014 and even then it\u2019s a gentle reveal.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As someone who has written intimate stories about transgender issues, I was curious about Diez\u2019s approach to \u201cVictoria.\u201d We spoke by Zoom from my home in Copenhagen and hers in in Mexico City; our conversation was helped by an interpreter and Google translate.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cI wanted the viewer to get to know Alex, before I told his story,\u201d Diez told me.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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While working on the film, she had several conversations with Kani Arkada<\/a>, a trans filmmaker and close friend. He urged her to consider her own heteronormative thinking and stereotypes about how trans identities are often portrayed. It was from those conversations that Diez decided to introduce the norms of Alex\u2019s life before revealing that he is a trans man.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThe intention was to delay the moment, to get to know the person before the labels,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Diez is one of the founders of the working collective La Sand\u00eda Digital<\/a>, a feminist collaborative of audiovisual production, training and communication that works with grassroots movements and civil society organizations in Mexico to tell stories of gender justice and humans rights.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201dWe try to tell stories about minority groups that are not so often portrayed in the media,\u201d Diez said.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Determined to tell the story from Alex\u2019s point of view, Diez continued to confront her own prejudices and ignorance: \u201cFor one, I was surprised to find that Alex has such a rich and strong network \u2013 an entire social fabric of family and friends around him. \u2026 The media and the few films about the subject tend to show us isolated trans identities, often absolutely rejected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Diez met Alex Reyes de Anda in 2016 after a screening of a short film she directed about families fighting to get custody over their children. At first she wanted to tell the story about the injustice Alex was experiencing as transgender. At the same time, Mexico was dealing with a rash of pushbacks against human rights\u2019 activists.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cIt was a time of great pessimism,\u201d Diez said. \u201cThere was a sense that no matter how much we tried to picture things like forced disappearances and femicides through videos and documentaries, nothing changed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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A more mature approach to narrative<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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She began questioning whether the story she was working on about Alex was the right one to tell: \u201dIn the work on human rights, we often follow formulas that have to do with denouncing human rights\u2019 violations. But that narrative doesn\u2019t allow us to see the resistance and strength of people. Even with the best intentions, it treats people as victims. When I met Alex, I realized that I couldn\u2019t continue down that path, and facing this crisis made me mature in my way of telling stories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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The story of Alex challenged not only how Diez saw trans identities, but also how she saw her work as a storyteller.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThat\u2019s when I learned about \u2018narrative practices,\u2019\u201d she said, \u201cwhere I found a way of rethinking my storytelling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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So in the middle of filming, Diez took a one-year diploma course in\u00a0Narrative Practices,<\/a>\u00a0 where she was introduced to the work of Australian Michael White around \u201cnarrative therapy,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0originally developed as a way to help people deal with negative challenges or perceptions through narrative. The idea at core: We give meaning to our lives based on the stories we tell, and we can change the meaning of our experience though storytelling.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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As Diez explained it, the stories we build about our experiences shape or constitute the worlds we inhabit. \u201cIt\u2019s not a tool, but a way of thinking,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we transform those stories, we can give new meaning to our own experience. A story that victimizes us, and then turns into our identity, builds very small worlds. But through story we can rebuild worlds that we can inhabit in a more dignified and stronger way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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So instead of recounting the violence and injustice that Alex had experienced during his transition, Diez went looking for the victories in his life.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cThey were not necessarily public victories with public recognition, but smaller and more intimate,\u201d she said. \u201cIt made a huge difference in my focus and way of telling his story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Patient reporting and a well-paced structure<\/h2>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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Filming the short doc took several years; Alex lived seven hours drive away from Diez, and her other work as a sound producer limited her availability to travel. But the slow pace of making the documentary became an advantage as it allowed Diez was to witness Alex\u2019s pregnancy and delivery.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cIf I had finished much earlier, the story would end with Alex in a depression, unable to reconnect with his first daughter,\u201d she said. \u201cOver the years, Alex overcame that struggle, reformulated his life based on music, formed a relationship with Fernanda and decided to bear his second daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Diez mapped out the story structure to identify the main topics and the path of the story, which was key to determining what to include and what to leave out.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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\u201cIt helped me not to get lost,\u201d she said, showing me her notebooks, several maps, drawings and charts, all organized with colorful sticky notes. \u201cI was building a map with all the themes, to later make decisions about which ones were going to be present. It was a slow process, because there were so many topics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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Among those topics:<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n

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