Elliot Montague Through the Skin Film

THROUGH THE SKIN / 18 minutes, color/b&w, 16mm film and digital video, 2002

This personal experimental autobiography presents a meditation on the experience and trauma of growing up gender nonconforming in 1980's rural south. Incorporating home movies with vintage health public service announcements, along with personal performance pieces, Through the Skin jarringly discloses the conflicts of a changing female body. Through a montage of images set against a dissonant soundtrack, the film speaks about the misunderstandings and tensions of identity struggle caused by family and the depression that later resulted. Exploring the complexities and implications of feeling androgynous in a female-assigned body, Through the Skin presents more than a personal testimony on the transgender experience, it provokes universal questions on the meaning of gender and mental health.

Distributed by Women Make Movies