About this documentary

Mum or Dad? Who cares I am a transgender parent

Justification

The main aspect of this project is to highlight the gap in knowledge between transgender and cisgender parenting within society, expressed through the experience and the feelings of Kirsty Gilbert-Gold as a transgender parent. Therefore, the main focus of this project is to inform, to educate, to promote equality and anti-discriminatory attitudes towards transgender parents. This is applied within the heteronormative social hierarchy through identification of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of a transgender individual. Inseparably, to underline the legal and social issues that are directly linked to the transgender community in the United Kingdom.  

What does it mean to be a transgender individual and what are the difficulties and obstacles that one might face in their daily lives? This has been explored within the remits of this documentary film in detail. This article aims to encourage greater representation of transgender issues in the British society. However, this film’s most important objective is an attempt to change public perception and to challenge the generally assumed sexist stereotypes and transphobic discriminatory views. The main participant’s unique personality characteristics combined with her impeccable sense humour and ability to articulate in places quit a painful story gives this film its originality and a special temperament.

This film has been produced to capture the attention of the BBC1 audiences. The audience of BBC1 varies but the research show that most of the British population chooses to watch mainly the BBC1 or BBC2 channels as the principal source of information and that the public understands the media text as a representation of generally accepted societal norms.

“Most people’s TV viewing of the BBC is with the two main television channels, so their perceptions are often based on the mainstream offering. For example, in our service review of BBC One, perceptions of the channel’s performance against the Public Purposes were similar to their perceptions of the BBC as a whole” (BBC Trust, 2012).

The research also points out that BBC’s audiences prefer more wider representation of LGBT issues within its broadcasting framework. For instance: The report concludes that audiences prefer an increase in LGBT programming content and the positive representation of the LGBT affairs that needs to reflect in BBC’s content structure. The report states:

“There is also a desire to see more positive portrayal in order to provide a more authentic overview of a characteristic and to help address negative perceptions or prejudice in society (BBC Trust, 2012).

Therefore, this documentary is perfectly suitable for BBC1 broadcast and would subsequently contribute to a positive portrayal of the LGBT community and its affairs in the UK.

The most challenging elements of producing this film was the coordination of the all of its participants in order to ensure that we stuck to the filming schedule and its timing.

Secondly the application, research and consultation of the legal issues that we have faced during the process of filming this article raised doubts and uncertainty whether the material obtained could be put into public domain at all.

Because this film involves working with children we had taken a special care to make sure that at no time they were exposed to anything that would make their experience whilst filming with us uncomfortable or distressing.

“Due care must be taken over the physical and emotional welfare and the dignity of people under eighteen who take part or are otherwise involved in programmes. This is irrespective of any consent given by the participant or by a parent, guardian or other person over the age of eighteen in loco parentis.” (Ofcom, 2017)

A special care was also taken during the time when we had to consider the legal aspect of Kirsty’s ongoing efforts to get her third child under her care. With much of the discussion it was decided that this element of the story will not be included as the social services intervention was still ongoing and the legal proceedings were not fully concluded.

As for the remaining two children Alicia and Malone, it was established that they were legally under Kirsty’s care and that they were not exposed to any significant risk of harm by taking their part within this documentary. The consent form has been signed by the parent and has been attached in the file submitted for marking.

The difficulties presented itself during logistical part of the film production due to the large quantities of the equipment that needed to be transported between the various sets and the  locations. An extra person was required to watch over the equipment whilst we were filming in the café and its outdoor area. There were also numerous technical glitches with filming equipment where some parts of it were missing. We could not for instance use the lighting equipment in its full capacity as it was impossible to assemble its parts to ensure its secure and stable position whilst filming the scene.

Overall, in my view, this project went really well and that is reflected in the produced material. However, some major technical issues aroused during the editing process and more professional sound editing techniques could have been applied to ensure the best possible quality of the final output material. The editing program kept crashing and adobe support helpline was contacted to resolve this issue. This has dramatically slowed down the whole editing process.

The film story begins with Kirsty’s present situation and shows how happy and fulfilled she is as a parent. The middle section describes the struggles and difficulties that she experienced during her childhood and it’s the most interesting aspect of the whole project. Through Kirsty’s emotions and her reflections on the past as well as present this film provides a very clear and distinct inside into the challenges and obstacles that people in transgender community must face emotionally, physically and mentally in their daily lives. However, the main objective of this story is to provide the true, accurate and clear representation of Kirsty’s life as a transgender parent and to underline the importance of equality and diversity within our society today.

 Bibliography:

BBC Trust, 2007-2012. Audience Perceptions and Expectations of the BBC: A summary of audience research commissioned on behalf of the BBC Trust [on-line]. London: BBC Trust.