Uncovered Lives: a Trans Healthcare Documentary

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Uncovered Lives is a ten-minute documentary which will advocate for transgender healthcare to be covered under Medicare–Australia's universal health insurance scheme. Told through intimate interviews with trans and non-binary Australians who are struggling to afford the life-saving care needed to be themselves, we will uncover the issues within our healthcare system and explore what it means to medically transition in Australia.

 

We are a diverse crew of film students from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and we’re seeking $2,000 to fund a production budget for this film, which is both our passion project as well as our QUT third-year production.

Watch Our Sizzle Reel

Recently, our team produced a sizzle reel to pitch this concept to an industry panel—where it was selected for third-year production! 

Watch it below.

 

Note: this sizzle reel reflects the tone and style of the documentary, but it does not represent the final product as our interviewees are subject to change. This is an important issue that affects a diverse range of people, and we intend to ensure our interviewees will better reflect that.

About the State of Trans Healthcare in Australia

Gender dysphoria greatly inhibits the functionality of its sufferers’ day-to-day lives. Transgender and non-binary people who are affected by it are constantly battling the physical and mental difficulties it poses. Practices such as chest-binding can be painful and even dangerous if done incorrectly, but it is not an option for many to operate without them. Going out in public to perform essential tasks like grocery shopping, going to work, or going to school, is often a painful and anxiety-inducing experience. The consequences of gender dysphoria when one can’t attain the proper care and support range from medical complications and social alienation, to even more serious mental health issues.

 

Regular hormone prescriptions can be around $100 every month—a steep price for many. Top surgery, one of the most common medical transition surgeries, usually costs around $10,000, and gender confirmation surgery (also known as ‘bottom surgery’) can range from $10,000 to $30,000. Most care is gate-kept behind private health insurance, which means years-long wait times for those who can’t afford it. And for those who can, or try to–at every step of the way, be it consultations, acquiring prescriptions, getting adequate support for mental health, or even just the usual visit to the GP, these Australians face not only astronomical costs but a medical system that is equipped with very little resources to help them. The consequences of shouldering their own financial burdens takes a great toll on these already struggling individuals, whose lives are effectively put on pause in favour of scrambling to afford the right to feel happy and safe in their bodies.

About Uncovered Lives

Most people would regard life-saving care as essential, but for many transgender Australians it’s deemed as “elective surgery”. Uncovered Lives will explore why it is that the government does not view medical transition as medically necessary, and how this medical negligence is affecting the lives of gender diverse Australians who receive no financial support. Uncovered Lives will be a participatory-style documentary, presented and led by our director, Kai Wharton–a transgender man who is close to the topic, and who sees first hand how the lack of financial aid for medical care impacts real people. Kai will interview four gender diverse Australians about their experiences with medical transition in Australia, and the crushing financial pressures that come with searching for a way to feel meaningfully comfortable in their bodies. These interviews will be the documentary’s primary focus, but we will also interview healthcare professionals to support our interviewees’ stories.

 

Due to the persisting stigma against gender diverse people, much of the wider population is uneducated on this issue and view gender affirming surgery as a cosmetic choice by its participants, rather than a necessity to feel comfortable and safe in their bodies so that they can live full lives. Uncovered Lives will show how serious and potentially life threatening it is for transgender people to be financially gate-kept from affirmative care. This documentary will aim to combat the lack of education amongst the general public, with the ultimate goal of pressuring the government to correct this issue and support thousands of struggling gender diverse Australians.

 

This documentary is highly relevant as trans people are a hot-button issue in the media right now—yet this coverage hasn’t seemed to increase public awareness to the point of inspiring actionable change to help trans Australians. There was a petition which recently ended with 148,182 signatures calling to cover gender-affirming surgeries under Medicare, which demonstrates that change is being called for, but that it is still an evolving issue. The government could change healthcare for trans people while we are filming, or new petitions and protests could arise, and we plan to cover any of these developments in the documentary.

About the Crew

Kai Wharton is a transgender filmmaker looking to combine his passion for creativity with his activism in order to try and make a positive difference. Having been through medical transition himself, as well as being surrounded by other trans people with similar experiences, he is very invested in issues surrounding transgender healthcare in Australia. Uncovered Lives is a passion project that Kai began developing in 2020, as he started the process of his own transition, with the intention of creating a film that could inspire real change in the world. As an aspiring film director and editor, he is looking forward to bringing this project to life and drawing attention to this serious issue that has so greatly affected his and his friend’s lives.

 

Having previously written queer-based stories and worked on numerous different projects as a producer, Kitty Moroney is looking forward to combining these passions into producing a documentary that explores such an important issue within the trans community. As a cisgendered queer person, Kitty is greatly looking forward to learning more about the reality of trans healthcare in Australia and by doing so hopes to be able to better support her trans peers. In producing this project, she is eager to also educate others like her who require more knowledge about medical transitioning in Australia.

 

Michelle Nguyen is a Vietnamese-Australian lesbian filmmaker with an ardent focus on diverse content made by diverse creators. She has produced on documentary projects before, including the sizzle reel for Uncovered Lives, and is dead set on using her powers of organisation to elevate gender diverse voices to the forefront of this issue.

Alice Hoger is a writer who wants to help others have their stories heard. She combines a love of storytelling with a passion for representing LGBTQIA+ people and their concerns. In the process of working on Uncovered Lives she has learned so much about the hardships faced by transgender and non-binary Australians and is excited to help share the beauty and strength of this community with the world.

 

Ruby Hilleard is a writer whose works tend to focus on LGBTQIA+ stories, aiming to highlight the unrepresented perspectives and experiences in her community and to empower the stories of others. Being non-binary herself, she was drawn to the project and it’s ability to positively impact her own future, as well as the futures of countless other trans and non-binary people, and ultimately aims to put her passion for the community and project itself into making Uncovered Lives the best it can be.

 

Harri Gordon was motivated to pursue a career in film because they want to tell diverse and creative stories and provide a voice to those who are often unheard. Having previously worked as editor for a range of projects, they are excited to share their skills and collaborate with a talented and diverse crew. As a non-binary person, they provide a personal perspective to the team and are proud to explore such an important and significant topic.

Allocation of Funds

Uncovered Lives is a not-for-profit film with an estimated budget of $2,000. The potential costs of this production include music rights, catering, stock footage, marketing, film distribution, and travel costs.

 

Equipment will be sourced from QUT or the crew's personal gear, and interviewees will be sourced from crew’s personal contacts on a volunteer basis, and filming will occur in peoples’ homes/workplaces. Insurance is also provided by QUT.

 

Any leftover funds, including money made from awards etc, will be donated to our interview participants' personal fundraisers to support their medical transitions, or to relevant charities.

 

Production Schedule

Pre-production for Uncovered Lives is already underway! As it is also a university assessment, the film will be completed by the end of 2022, and is slated for filming in early 2022.

 

As an advocacy film, we intend to distribute Uncovered Lives online so its message can be accessible, but we may also submit it to various film festivals to boost it further.