The Documentary Project challenges juniors to portray a person, subject, place, group, or issue they find interesting and form a distinct, relevant perspective through the gathering of primary and secondary sources. Students write a research-based paper with an emphasis on narrative-style journalism for English, adapt it into a magazine article for Digital Media, and produce content for their electives.
For my documentary, I wanted to explore a topic that has impacted me deeply for a long time: the lack of good trans representation in media and how it affects the development of trans identities. To do so, I interviewed three trans and nonbinary people with connections to art and also reflected on my own experiences as a trans person. I really appreciated being given the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of a topic through both research and anecdotes from people with diversified perspectives.
Research Paper
About four years ago, I realized my gender was different from the one I was assigned at birth. I’ve been looking for positive trans representation ever since and, unfortunately, it’s still a struggle. In the paper below, I focused on the following question: How does the media affect the perception of trans identities, both to general audiences and trans people themselves?
Magazine Article
Using InDesign and my own graphics, I converted the paper into a magazine article!
Animation Work
For my elective, I had to create a short animation that encompassed the main points of the chat with my first interviewee and friend, Jehan Rasmussen. It had to be made and recorded via Discord due to the current pandemic, but it was still very engaging! This section documents the animation process, from the storyboarding to the final result.
Storyboard
Initial Concept Design
I worked on a reflexive documentary that benefits from the use of animation to illustrate the struggles of finding good trans representation in media, capturing emotions and concepts through illustrative drawings.
My color scheme has the colors of the trans flag: pink, white, and blue. I also intended to use dark blues for negatively charged scenes and the lineart, and yellow for positive ones. I later on added red for confrontational scenes.
Animated Documentary
Process
Photogallery
Interviewees
Jehan Rasmussen is a nonbinary and queer artist. They enjoy cosplaying and producing visual art.
Shawna Virago is a celebrated transgender musician and activist. Her music is celebrated for its mix of original songs, storytelling and standup. She is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival’s Artistic Director since 2003, selecting the films and videos, organizing fundraising, coordinating production staff and volunteers and overseeing publicity.
“Ryn Spikes” is an Androgynous artist from California. Their work is not currently public.