I'm Just Anneke / The Family Journey

Jonathan Skurnik's two short films compiled here revolve around kids who don't conform to conventional gender roles. I'm Just Anneke focuses on 12-year-old Anneke, who lives in Vancouver and has felt like a boy for as long as she can remember. She plays hockey on a girls' team, dresses like a boy, and feels free to chart her own path, since her parents have never put any pressure on her. But her mother, Nicole, says that Anneke suffered from depression when she was 4 and reportedly experienced suicidal thoughts at age 5. Now her doctor has her on the puberty-suppressant medication Lupron until she determines her gender (he's also prescribed Prozac and Ambien). Nicole believes that Anneke is happier than before, and that she's having better luck making friends (interestingly, they're all female). Anneke and Nicole also appear in the second offering, The Family Journey: Raising Gender Nonconforming Children, in which parents and siblings of children in transition relate their experiences. Maria Jose and Pam, for instance, talk about boys who longed to wear dresses, and Jeannine relates the hostile reactions to her son's going to school in girls' attire. All of the adults found acceptance of their children's differences difficult but necessary, with one saying “You have to get over yourself, and get over your own fear.” In dealing with the reactions of other children, however, one interviewee suggests that kids take their cues from adults—when parents and teachers show acceptance, other students will fall in line. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)