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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