In honor of Transgender Awareness Week, BENT is pleased to present the award-winning documentary, MAN MADE with our Sacramento audience.
A feature-length documentary tracing the varied lives of four transgender men, as they prepare to step on stage at the only all-trans bodybuilding competition in the world. Told through the intimate and authentic lens of trans filmmaker T Cooper, MAN MADE intertwines the nuances of manhood, the drive for social
justice, and the competitive desire to forge our own paths and be our personal best.
Executive Producers: Téa Leoni; John Hirsch and Ron Yassen
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/261025421
ABOUT THE FILM:
MAN MADE takes us into the heart of transgender male (FTM) culture, revealing unexpected truths about gender, masculinity, humanity and love. Four trans men (who, like the film’s director, were born and raised female), take a variety of life paths toward stepping on stage at Trans FitCon, the only all-transgender bodybuilding competition in the world (held in Atlanta, GA). MAN MADE is a character-driven, intimate, and riveting verité-style competition film, but also a unique social justice narrative. It speaks to the ways in which we all choose to define and reshape ourselves, both figuratively and literally.
The strength on display in MAN MADE transcends the physical: Rese is a young father struggling with periods of homelessness; Dominic seeks out his family of origin, confronting an alternate history for himself; Kennie admits to himself and his loved ones who he is for the first time in his life; and Mason, a loving husband who struggles with mental illness, works daily to be the man he’s always wanted to be—on both the inside and out. We follow these subjects’ emotional and physical journeys as they navigate lives as the men they are, despite very real risks inherent in the current social and political climate. For the men of MAN MADE, it’s not about winning—it’s about being seen.
ABOUT TRANSGENDER AWARENESS WEEK - Transgender Awareness Week, typically observed the second week of November, is a one-week celebration leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), which memorializes victims of transphobic violence. The purpose of Transgender Awareness Week is to make aware the issues transgender and gender non-conforming people face every day. Source: thegenderhealthcenter.org
