Coby

Trailer.

Available Summary:

"In a small town deep in the American Midwest, Suzanna begins a gender transition and becomes a boy: Coby. Coby’s transformation deeply impacts the lives the lives of all who love him, and each member of this tight-knit family must confront their own preconceived notions of gender and sexuality. Combining excerpts from Coby’s video dairy with candid, heartfelt interviews from his closet friends and family, Christian Sonderegger’s debut feature is an intimate and sensitive look at timely subject. Ultimately, Coby’s journey morphs into the transformation of a whole family compelled by love to modify their own perspectives." -Film Movement.

Jack's Summary:

Coby is about trans manhood, and features extensive interviews with a now-deceased trans man (Jacob), his partner, and his family.

The film alternates between modern, feature film-quality footage of himself in his daily life, and archives of video diaries that he took throughout his transition. Viewers get to see him in his youth, with a higher voice and a smaller body, and his subsequent boyhood as he began to grow facial hair and change into a man.

I’d definitely recommend this documentary to other trans men, and to families who are trying to adjust. His mother's transphobia was difficult to watch, but very realistic to what many of us face from our own mothers. My hope would be that mothers might pause before rejecting or attacking their own trans sons, if they see the impact Jacob's mother had on him.

Christian Sonderegger, Jacob's brother, directed this documentary and would later co-write the film A Good Man (2020), with characters based on Jacob's own transition and journey. Having watched A Good Man and absolutely hated it, that does cast this documentary in a slightly odd light, but it's still good in isolation.