Into My Name

There's a ten year age gap between the four friends who assemble here to illustrate their experience transitioning from female to male. Over the ninety minutes of this routinely produced documentary, we are given a bit of a sense of just how these people have adapted to a society that is still largely defined by male and femaleness (from birth) and it looks at a broad range of implications not just for them, but for a community as an whole that frequently confuse the nouns of masculine and feminine with those of masculinity and femininity. Attributes and the mannerisms are sometimes the cause of that confusion with one describing himself as "too manly to be a girl" but not manly enough "to be a boy" and as we get to know Nic, Raff, Leo and Andrea we see that they are all just as different as they are similar. Their attitudes and personalities, their aspirations and their desires are no more consistent than those amongst the wider population. Indeed, their frequently quite candid reflections on what makes them tick demonstrates that there is still plenty of room for personal growth and maturity, and that their expectations are more collaborative rather than ones of entitlement. That's quite refreshing, I think, as they make it clear that this isn't about them getting special treatment; it's about them integrating at their own pace, in their own way. It's message of normality - but a normality based much less on superficial judgements and more on evaluations based on who a person is, not what they are or look/dress/act like. These four are engaging, they are annoying, they are selfish, they are real... Just a microcosm of a larger humanity that probably isn't as hostile to them as they might think, but whose linguistic terminology (though not in Italian, as it happens) is largely predicated on what is male and what is female, with little reason or flexibility to these arbitrary definitions. It's not without it's flaws, and at times can come across as overly simplistic. Also, what's curious as it's an Italian documentary, is the lack of religiosity amongst a nation riddled with the stuff - but as an observation of characters just trying to be themselves, it's a remarkably honest piece of journalism.