Pink Boy
Running Time: 15 minutes
+ 30 Minutes of Special Features
Grades 10-Adult
Scene Selection Closed Captioned
A Film by Eric Rockey
AIRING ON PBS' POV SERIES FALL 2016
A story of the unconditional love of family and parents who recognize the importance of creating a safe space for their son to live out his truth.
- Telluride Film Festival
"A story of familial love between a butch mother and her feminine son, Pink Boy follows BJ and her son Jeffrey as they both learn to embrace his inner princess.
Frameline Film Festival
"Creative and well-crafted, Pink Boy is a tender and heartfelt portrait of a transgender boy and his protective loving mother... a film with editorial and emotional resonance.
- DOC NYC Jurors statement
FESTIVAL AWARDS
Best Short, DOC NYC 2015
Jury Award, Best Documentary Short, Palm Springs ShortFest
Audience Award, Best Short, Nantucket Film Festival
Grand Prize, Viola M. Marshall Audience Choice Award for Best LGBTQ Film, Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival
Jury Award for Best Short, MiFo LGBT Film Festival Fort Lauderdale
Nominated for Short Doc, Sheffield Doc/Fest
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Sheffield Doc/Fest
Telluride Mountainfilm
Florida Film Festival
Traverse City Film Festival
Newport Beach Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival
Nantucket Film Festival
Palm Springs ShortFest
DOC NYC
Prices include DVD and limited Public Performance Rights
+ 30 Minutes of Special Features
Grades 10-Adult
Scene Selection Closed Captioned
A Film by Eric Rockey
FEATURED IN VANITY FAIR
AIRING ON PBS' POV SERIES FALL 2016
A story of the unconditional love of family and parents who recognize the importance of creating a safe space for their son to live out his truth.
- Telluride Film Festival
"A story of familial love between a butch mother and her feminine son, Pink Boy follows BJ and her son Jeffrey as they both learn to embrace his inner princess.
Frameline Film Festival
"Creative and well-crafted, Pink Boy is a tender and heartfelt portrait of a transgender boy and his protective loving mother... a film with editorial and emotional resonance.
- DOC NYC Jurors statement
FESTIVAL AWARDS
Best Short, DOC NYC 2015
Jury Award, Best Documentary Short, Palm Springs ShortFest
Audience Award, Best Short, Nantucket Film Festival
Grand Prize, Viola M. Marshall Audience Choice Award for Best LGBTQ Film, Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival
Jury Award for Best Short, MiFo LGBT Film Festival Fort Lauderdale
Nominated for Short Doc, Sheffield Doc/Fest
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Sheffield Doc/Fest
Telluride Mountainfilm
Florida Film Festival
Traverse City Film Festival
Newport Beach Film Festival
Nashville Film Festival
Nantucket Film Festival
Palm Springs ShortFest
DOC NYC
K-12 Schools, Public Libraries & Community Groups: $59
Colleges, Government, Business: $145
Colleges(with Digital Site License): $245
Colleges, Government, Business: $145
Colleges(with Digital Site License): $245
Pink Boy is a verite-style documentary profiling a young gender non-conforming boy growing up in a conservative area of rural Florida.
Six-year old Jeffrey likes nothing better than to put on a gown and dance for his two lesbian moms, who adopted him expecting they would raise a boy. Mom BJ successfully avoided dresses and girls' toys her entire life and admits she initially had a hard time when her son expressed feminine interests.
"Pink boys" have their unique challenges: they do not neatly fit into a single gender box, and instead create a space between genders, which this film explores. They like to dress in girls clothing and play with girl toys, but still identify as boys. These children often face widespread ignorance and shaming, sometimes from their own families. They often live with daily threats of bullying and violence and are at high risk for depression and suicide as they reach their teens.
Pink Boys verite-style allows the viewer to experience life through Jeffreys eyes. Thanks to supportive parents, we see Jeffrey confidently move between masculine and feminine in dress-up time at school, a rodeo in Georgia, and the ultimate holiday for a pink boy, Halloween. As Jeffrey increasingly wishes to be publicly identified as a girl called Jessie, his parents must learn both to accept and to navigate when it is safe for him in an often hostile environment.
30 MINUTES OF SPECIAL FEATURES
Outtakes & Extended Interviews with Jeffrey's moms and school principal
Adopting Jeffrey
The First Hint
Reactions to Jeffrey Dressing Up
Jeffrey's School
Getting Ready for Halloween
Mom Sherrie Interview
PRODUCER STATEMENT:
"As a gay man who grew up in a different era, I experienced what it was like to be in the closet. I was inspired to make this film when I started hearing stories of families whose children expressed their gender differences at the earliest age. It made me start thinking about what would it be like if you grew up and you were never in the closet. And how would that affect your identity and your confidence and how you approach the world? So I had this vision of an entire generation of kids someday growing up that way. When I met BJ, Sherrie, and Jeffrey (now Jessie), I felt that I had found the family that could best tell this story.
- Eric Rockey