Rating: 14A

Description:

While the other students wonder if new kid Robin is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices to fit in.

Director's Statement:

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I was often asked, “Are you a boy or a girl?” and I wish I could have let that question hang in the air unanswered, like Robin does in the film. At the beginning of the film, Robin is confronted with the question, “What are you?” meaning, “Are you a boy or a girl?” We watch as Robin slowly exchanges that question for a bigger one: “What are you?” can mean “What kind of person are you?” Robin comes to grips with the larger ethical realization that one’s actions toward others have resounding consequences. In this way, we’re able to move from questions of identity to considerations of how to be in community.

The script, by me and my writing partner Fish Griwkowsky, avoids all gendered pronouns for Robin. No one within the film calls Robin “he,” “she,” or “they.” We intentionally avoided writing a moment of gender disclosure in the film, because I don’t believe Robin knows satisfactory words to describe this experience yet. Likewise, we avoided showing other characters assign a gender to Robin – something we can be sure would be happening offscreen – so as not to misgender Robin within the film. This keeps the focus on Robin’s interior, subjective experience of being in the world. Offscreen, Vaughan Murrae – the actor who plays Robin – uses they/them pronouns for themself personally, but when I talk or write about the film, I try not to use “he,” “she,” or “they” to refer to the character of Robin. It takes concentration, but it can be done!

It’s my hope that the film can explore the inner, emotional reality of not having words to describe your gender, yet not letting your gender define you.

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