DOCUMENTARYacceptanceof trans people’sgender-affirmationjourneys.
Thomson’sfilm is an amalgamof interviewswith its subject
and variousfamilymembers,friendsand helpers;nostal-
gic re-enactmentsof earlierdays; recentfootageof Young
negotiatingher limitedpersonalspace;cutawaysto shoes;
and still and movingimagespresumablyfrom Young’sper-
sonal archive– all of whichbuild a rich pictureof a woman
who, especiallywhen still full of hope and relativelyinde-
pendent,is a sparklingdelighttogettoknow.Indeed,it
becomesupsettingwhen,in later scenes,we see Young
with reducedmobilityand depressedwhen countenancing
the likelihoodof never being approvedfor gender-affirmation
surgery.Yetit isBecomingColleen’s talkingheads’varying
competencewith pronounsthat inevitablysticksin the
mind, speakingmost stronglyto mainstreamsociety’s
struggleto respectfullyrecogniseanother’strue gender
when its affirmationcomesas a surprise.
Becoming linguistically competent
While Young’ssole survivingson, John, insiststhat he has
been fine with her transitionall along – when she tearily
came out to him, he says, he simplyreplied,‘I’ve known
for years,Dad’ – he cannotbring himselfin any of his
to-cameraaddressesto refer to Youngby any pronouns
other than ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’. Bianchinoeven recalls
that John would‘get offended’whenevershe corrected
him about this duringthe early days of Young’stransition.
‘He’s still my father,regardlessof what he wantsto do
with his life,’ is John’smost telltaleutterance– smacking
of simultaneoussupportand resistance.It’s little wonder,
then, that Young’sgranddaughterSiobhanblithelymimics
her father’smisgendering in an awkward cameo towards
the film’s close.
At the oppositeend of the spectrumlie Bianchino,a
near-paragonof trans allyship,and EmanuelVlahakis,
a medicalspecialistin sexualhealthwho officiatedover
Young’stransition,both of whomaffirm her genderlingu-
isticallywheneverthe camerais on them. Pippa Stanton,
nurse unit managerat Coffs HavenResidentialCare
Service,is unstintingin her respectfulpronounusage,too.
Her case is especiallywelcome,as this facilityis run by
ChurchesofChrist,^1 the very sort of organisationthat, by
its name alone,sendstinglesdown the spines of ageing
LGBTQIA+folk everywhere.
Seesawingbetweenthe poles representedby Young’s
family(unableand/orunwillingto tailor their vocabularyto
linguisticallyembraceher transitionalgenderidentity)on
one hand and healthprofessionals(who can be expected
to abide by industrybest practices)on the other is the very
sweetDeniseWard.She’s Young’sneighbourand friend-
cum-carerat Lime Tree Village,a retirementprecinctfor –
as Bianchinodescribesit – ‘conservative,older Australians’;
there, Younglived with her belovedwife, Heather,prior to
the latter’ssad passingand to the panic attacks thatpre-
cipitatedYoung’shospitalisation.
Ward can be consideredthe avatarfor the film’s, and its
dramatispersonae’s,grappleswith Young’sgenderidentity–
and with the slipperymatterof gendermore broadly.At one
point, Ward statesthat, after Heatherpassedaway, Young
‘was getting braver, out on the verandah with colours on,
colouredshoes,and everyonein the villagewas just sur-
misingthat he’s wearingHeather’sshoesto feel closerto
her.’ Here, it is ambiguouswhetherWard alone is misgen-
deringYoung,or whethershe is recountinghow ‘every-
one in the village’had been referringto Young(or both).
Later, reflectingon Young’scomingout, Ward again mixes
masculineand femininepronouns.But, near the end of the
film, increasinglydistressedat the certaintythat her friend
will never have the gender-affirmationsurgeryshe has long
hankeredafter, Ward has seeminglymade a conscious
efforttorefertoYoungwhollybyhercorrectpronouns–
and, on the one occasion when she slips, she immediately
correctsherself.
Ward’swillingnessto learn ultimatelycasts her in a very
positivelight; it’s a shamethat same light couldn’tshine
over Young’sfamily,too. Their inability,or reluctance,to ad-
dress and refer to Youngby the correctpronounsmay well
have been functionsof havingbeen broughtup in a society
of limitedliteracyconcerningmattersof genderidentity;
however,Ward nonethelessstandsas proof that onecan
adjustone’s languageover time, if one wishes to make a
concertedandrespectfuleffort to do so.Sins of omission
I first met ColleenYoungtwo years ago. I was askedto
film her as part of her comingout. She’djust comeout
at eighty-twoasa transgenderwomanafterlivingherlife
asa man,a marriedman,withsons,a wholecareerasa
film projectionistand in the policeforce [...] So I spoketo
Colleenandaskedherwhether she would be interested
in sharing her story.It may just be an innocentmatterof unfortunatephrasing,
but the abovewordsby Thomson^2 reinforceanuneasiness
I have about the level of agencyYoungwas grantedas the
subjectofBecomingColleen. Thomsonsays he was ‘asked
to film her’ – but by whom,exactly?In a documentarywith
severaltalkingheadsbut no centralnarrator,how much
influencewas Youngallowedin decidingwhat went in and
what was left out? Authorshipaside,BecomingColleen,
with its short,under-one-hourrunningtime – perhaps
a functionof the need to be saleableto television,or a
rush to completeproductiondue to limitedfundingor
film-festivalpremieredeadlines– frustratesby not giving
a full-enoughpictureof Young’sbackstory.
For one, it is odd that the film is presentedas an en-
tirely Australianstory – a Coffs Harbourstory, very particu-
larly, completewith an early sightingof The Big Bananato
reinforcethe narrative’sspecificityto that city and its con-
servative,NationalParty–heartlandvalues.However,as
Thomsonhimselfadmitsduringa radio interview,Young
was a New Zealanderby birth, only movingto Australia- andnottoCoffsHarbourinitially,buttotheGoldCoast–
when her and Heather’ssons were teenagers.^3 Theelision
of this detail from the resultingwork is baffling;the film fea-
tures Youngspeakingaboutmany formativelife events
that could have occurredonly in New Zealand,exceptnot
once does it offer viewersany visual or aural hints that
positionthese experiencesoutsideCoffs Harbour.At one
point, Bianchino also mentions that, when Young came to
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