![\"Jane,](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/11\/12\/arts\/11trans-docs-alwaysjane\/merlin_197218800_10ec1b73-54c8-480d-add1-e69ffbb5316a-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale\")
<\/p>\nFor decades, films about transgender people tended to be sensationalistic. A newer crop is more celebratory \u2014 and opening doors for its young subjects.<\/p>\n
In the first part of the documentary series \u201cAlways Jane,\u201d Jane Noury, a high school student in suburban New Jersey, hangs out with friends, contemplates college \u2014 maybe the School of Visual Arts? \u2014 and works at the local Panera. She dreams of being a director. Near the end of Part 1, Jane also learns that she will have to miss commencement; it falls on the same day as her gender confirmation surgery.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s talk of anti-transgender bullying, but not a lot. In that episode, she also shops for a prom dress and plans a trip to Los Angeles, where she is to compete in an international competition for transgender models \u2014 the first of its kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying it was all happy rainbows and everything,\u201d Jane said in a recent video interview. But she believed the series\u2019s director, Jonathan Hyde, \u201creally wanted to tell a story where a family just shows their love and acceptance of their trans child.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Premiering Friday on Amazon Prime Video, the four-part series is among a crop of recent TV documentaries that skew toward the celebratory over the sensational, featuring younger transgender subjects who, unlike their predecessors of decades past, have the terminology and understanding to describe what they\u2019re going through, and are growing up at a time when more viewers have been exposed to transgender people and the issues they face.<\/p>\n
The documentaries, which include films like \u201cTranshood\u201d (about four transgender children growing up in Kansas City) and \u201cLittle Girl\u201d (a portrait of an 8-year-old transgender French girl), both from 2020, reflect a changing culture that allows for deeper and more nuanced explorations of their subjects \u2014 even as the films themselves contribute to those cultural changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the history of trans documentaries, it started with this subculture perspective on trans people, like, \u2018Look at this weird corner of the world nobody knows about,\u2019\u201d said TJ Billard, a communications professor at Northwestern and the founding executive director of the Center for Applied Transgender Studies, in Chicago. \u201cThen it moved into highly medicalized documentaries about the \u2018scientific wonders of gender conversion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Avery](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/11\/11\/arts\/11trans-docs-2a\/merlin_197219751_49c6b944-126a-4a59-931b-dca3d0af21e7-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale\")
<\/p>\n
And now? More and more of them, like \u201cAlways Jane,\u201d tell stories of determined and immensely likable transgender children or teens who face adversity \u2014 from bullying to bathroom wars \u2014 and beat the odds. Many of the documentaries, some filmed nearly a decade ago when their subjects were very young, have created opportunities for their subjects since.<\/p>\n
\u201cHollywood is much more willing to take a risk on somebody with a public profile,\u201d Billard said. \u201cSo I think this pivot is, in some ways, a way for trans people who do emerge into the public eye through this documentary form to capitalize on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways Jane\u201d got its start in early 2020, when Hyde was thinking about creating a short film centered on the transgender modeling contest in which Jane was set to compete. After meeting Jane and her mother in the run-up to the event, however, Hyde decided to put the focus squarely on the Nourys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember my mom was crying a lot, and then I started crying,\u201d Jane said. \u201cIt was a very emotional first meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Noury](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/11\/11\/arts\/11trans-docs1a\/merlin_197540346_1b8460e1-75af-46a2-9ae6-cc3623adab64-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale\")
<\/p>\n
Over the course of the series, we see Jane finish a senior year upended by the pandemic and make friends with other contestants in Los Angeles. (\u201cI didn\u2019t have a lot of trans friends in Sparta,\u201d she said of her hometown.) Otherwise, much of the series is filled with scenes of a loving family, including Jane\u2019s father, David; her older sister, Emma, who is an intensely protective Coast Guard cadet; and her younger sister, Mae, who is struggling with the thought of having Jane leave home for college. Many scenes were filmed, diary-style, by Jane on a hand-held camera.<\/p>\n
Documentaries about the transgender experience weren\u2019t always this way. Early examples include \u201cQueens at Heart\u201d (1967), an exploitation film complete with creepy, leering interviewer, and \u201cLet Me Die a Woman\u201d (1978), which promised viewers \u201call true! all real!\u201d scenes of sex reassignment surgery. In these early films, the subjects were, not surprisingly, often anonymous.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s subjects are often anything but anonymous, and many have moved beyond the documentaries they appeared in to pursue opportunities as actors, writers and activists.<\/p>\n
![\"Since](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/11\/11\/arts\/11trans-docs-jazz\/merlin_117942848_1bee0654-28e6-41ce-8b83-65dbf87ab8dd-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale\")
<\/p>\n
Jazz Jennings, who at 11 was the subject of the 2011 documentary \u201cI Am Jazz,\u201d went on to write a children\u2019s book and a memoir and currently stars in a TLC reality series, also titled \u201cI Am Jazz.\u201d Avery Jackson, who began filming \u201cTranshood\u201d in 2014, when she was 7, became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of National Geographic in 2016 and wrote a children\u2019s book, \u201cIt\u2019s Okay to Sparkle,\u201d the next year.<\/p>\n
Since appearing in the 2016 HBO documentary \u201cThe Trans List,\u201d Nicole Maines, now 24, has done a TEDx Talk, starred in a vampire film (\u201cBit\u201d), and in 2018 debuted in the CW series \u201cSupergirl,\u201d which wrapped up its six-season run on Nov. 9. Maines played Nia Nal, also known as Dreamer, the first transgender superhero on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first of anything is special,\u201d she said, adding that she was \u201cconsumed by this character. I have a relationship with her that borders on the unhealthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Nicole](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2021\/11\/12\/arts\/11trans-docs-supergirl2\/merlin_145082544_fca71872-1aab-4421-84bd-9c2eebbf2331-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale\")
<\/p>\n
Zoey Luna, who appeared in the HBO documentaries \u201cRaising Zoey\u201d (2016) and \u201c15: A Quincea\u00f1era Story\u201d (2017), went on to land roles in \u201cPose\u201d (2018-21), \u201cThe Craft: Legacy\u201d (2020), and in September, the film version of \u201cDear Evan Hansen.\u201d She said she viewed the documentary experience \u2014 being on set, working in front of cameras \u2014 as valuable job training.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing in the documentaries was definitely an avenue for me to accomplish that goal of becoming an actress,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew that they would create some visibility for me, and they definitely helped me feel like my dreams were achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel like there are more opportunities for transgender actresses now,\u201d she added. \u201cAnd I feel like the opportunities are going to be endless within a matter of years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The documentaries don\u2019t sugarcoat the experiences of their subjects, even as the films celebrate their victories and families. In \u201cThe Trans List,\u201d Maines recalls having staffers at her middle school assigned to keep her from using the girl\u2019s bathroom. In \u201cRaising Zoey,\u201d Luna and her mother describe how Luna was bullied by classmates who would pull her hair and call her names.<\/p>\n
In \u201cAlways Jane,\u201d Jane recalls being outed at a school assembly by a student who thought that transitioning was a sin. Her sister Emma, who was also at the assembly, wasn\u2019t having it \u2014 and said so. For the film, Jane went back to the auditorium to recount the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I was over what happened, but psychologically it was a lot for me to be back in that situation,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just really grateful I had Emma there to be my advocate, and to just be there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since graduating high school, Jane has expanded her horizons and community. She has appeared in fashion magazines and walked the runway at Rihanna\u2019s Savage X Fenty fashion show, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Currently a student at the School of Visual Arts, in Manhattan, Jane is studying film and hopes to try some acting. (\u201cI\u2019d love to do a horror film,\u201d she said, \u201cmaybe playing a psycho killer or something.\u201d) She also hopes to do more modeling. Her mother, Laura, hopes she will, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a beautiful model,\u201d Laura said. \u201cAnd she struts her stuff down the runway. It\u2019s amazing to watch the confidence that\u2019s in her, because I look back and I remember the scared boy who wouldn\u2019t come out of his room.\u201d<\/p>\n