A still from Aurora Brachman s short documentary Joychild.
Filmmaker Aurora Brachman is drawn to stories about intimacy and relationships between families and communities. Her most recent short documentary
Joychildexplores that dynamic within a play group called Rainbow Families.
Shot on 16-millimeter film in black and white, the film shares a story of an eight-year-old recalling a memory with their mother of when they came out as transgender.
Joychild makes this conversation into an intimate, poetic portrait exploring both the positives of growing up gender expansive as well as the hesitancy and fear.
“I knew that I wanted to make a film about gender expansive children and specifically, gender expansive children in the context of like a loving relationship with their parent and what it can look like for a child to explore themselves when they have that kind of love and support from a parent,” says Brachman.