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Born to Be

This film is no longer available

About the film

Soon after New York state passed a 2015 law that health insurance should cover transgender-related care and services, director Tania Cypriano and producer Michelle Hayashi began bringing their cameras behind the scenes at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where this remarkable documentary captures the emotional and physical journey of surgical transitioning. Lending equal narrative weight to the experiences of the center’s groundbreaking surgeon Dr. Jess Ting and those of his diverse group of patients, 'Born to Be' perfectly balances compassionate personal storytelling and fly-on-the-wall vérité. It’s a film of astonishing access—most importantly into the lives, joys, and fears of the people at its center.

Genre

Documentary

Runtime

1h 32m

Released

2019

Director

Tania Cypriano

Producer

Rachel Mills, Heidi Reinberg, Michelle Koo Hayashi, Jessica Kingdon

Executive Producer

Molly M. Fowler, J. Winkelried, Susan Norget

Cast

Jess Ting, Leiomy Maldonado, Shawn Frederick Sr., Garnet Rubio, Cashmere, Jordan Rubenstein, Mahogany Phillips

Awards & recognition

Nashville Film Festival 2020

Winner Grand Jury Prize Best Documentary Feature

Hong Kong International Film Festival 2020

Nominee Golden Firebird Award Documentary

GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics 2021

Nominee Dorian Award LGBTQ Documentary of the Year

DocAviv Film Festival 2020

Nominee Panorama

Hamptons Film Festival

Official Selection

New York Film Festival

Official Selection

What people are saying

"A brave, revelatory, and beautifully realized film, it is easily one of the year’s best and most important documentaries."

Godfrey Cheshire

RogerEbert.com

"A lively and moving documentary about the first major American hospital center for transgender surgery shows us what the future will look like. Moving and fascinatingly forward-looking. What the Mount Sinai center represents is a paradigm shift, if not a revolution."

Owen Gleiberman

Variety

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