ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY

PRODUCTION HAS BEGUN

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.

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.