'What Will I Become?' Doc Honors Transmasculine Lives
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- "What Will I Become?" is a documentary co-directed by Logan Rozos and Lexie Bean that tackles the transmasculine suicide crisis, a context the film notes with the statistic that more than 50% of transmasculine boys attempt suicide.
- The film centers two subjects — Blake Brockington, whose 2014 Prom King win at a North Carolina high school made him an inspiration for transmasculine teens including the filmmakers, is rendered through archival footage, diaries, and poetry read by an actor; Kyler Prescott's story is told largely through his now-divorced parents' accounts.
- The documentary premiered at the Berlinale in February and screened at last week's BlackStar festival, with the reviewer arguing it "deserves to find a larger audience outside the fest circuit."
- Filmmakers Rozos and Bean appear on screen under a "sheath tent" inside a room, a "whimsical" image the reviewer reads as a flight from the outside world, though their own segments are described as "reticent" and "somewhat unbalanced" compared to the more forthright parents and friends.
- A third subject, Akewele, is briefly introduced — primarily, per the reviewer, to raise awareness about a trans hotline service — in a segment that feels "odd" beside the more deeply rendered portraits of Brockington and Prescott.
Why it matters: The film pushes past the headline statistic by dwelling on Brockington's voice, Prescott's piano playing, and the memories of loved ones — and in Prescott's case makes the case that "even the most understanding and supportive family cannot undo the harm inflicted by institutions and systems" hostile to visible trans expression, sharpening ongoing policy debates about how trans youth are protected.
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