Creating Gender Inclusive Schools

Walter Littlemoon attended a federal Indian boarding school in South Dakota sixty years ago. The mission of many of these schools in 1950, was still to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The children were beaten, humiliated or abused if they spoke their language or expressed their culture or native identity in any way. The trauma led many to alcoholism and violence in adulthood. At age 58, Walter began writing his memoirs as a way to explain his own abusive behaviors to his estranged children, but he could not complete the project without confronting the “thick dark fog” of his past so he could heal.

This is a portrait of a 12-year-old girl who loves ice hockey and has a loving, close-knit family. Despite rejection by her friends and struggles with suicidal depression, Anneke is determined to be true to herself and maintain a gender fluid identity that matches what she feels on the inside. Anneke takes us into the heart of a new generation of children who are intuitively questioning the binary gender paradigm.

How does it feel when your mom prays everyday for you to be someone else? That’s the struggle Johanna, a 16 year old transgender Latina faces. At first her mom thinks she’s confused, or joking, but as Johanna’s transformation continues, her mom simply can’t handle the fact that her son is Becoming Johanna. After prayer doesn’t change anything, Johanna’s mom tries therapists and a mental hospital in her quest to “fix” her daughters gender identity. While she was born a boy, Johanna is a young woman on the inside and nothing but living a lie can change that.

Badger Creek is a portrait of Native resilience as seen through a year in the life of three generations of a Blackfeet family living on the rez in Montana. The Mombergs are a loving, sober family who run a successful ranch, live a traditional worldview and are re-learning their language.

A group of men are in search of the meaning to life but get caught in a web spun by Santa Flakey therapist Deirdre.

A short film that follows the journey of the parents and siblings of young people who are questioning if they’re a boy, a girl, or something in between. What about your thinking needs to change? How does your whole family come together to nurture and support them? The frank, vulnerable interviews with families living through this potentially scary transition demonstrate how loving and accepting your gender nonconforming child in the face of ignorance and outright hostility from the community have made them more compassionate human beings. At its heart, it’s about how acceptance and unconditional love allow these kids to be who they are and not just survive, but thrive.