I Am Skylar
2019 · 15m · Canada
Directed by Rachel Bower
Genres: coming-of-age, documentary, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, tender
Fourteen-year-old Skylar, supported by her family and community, speaks openly about being a transgender girl approaching puberty and about shaping the woman she intends to become.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects a trans coming-of-age doc to be either martyrdom or inspiration porn—Bower just... lets Skylar exist, which somehow feels more radical than any narrative contortion could.
A formally restrained portrait that trusts silence and domestic space the way Wiseman trusts observation; the film's refusal to sentimentalize or explain positions it carefully within a lineage of ethical documentary practice.
The singular choice here is the decision to center Skylar's own voice and temporal awareness—not her parents' worry or her future potential, but her present certainty—and that structural commitment is what makes fifteen minutes feel like enough.