The Convention

At an annual conference of older transsexual men at a seaside resort in Washington state, a speaker welcomes first-time attendees, telling them that at this conclave, “You don’t have to pretend to be anybody else other than who you are inside.” The men who feel like women, as they put it, express deep relief in the solidarity that comes from being in the company of others like themselves, some for the first time in their lives. At the same time, they speak poignantly about the lifelong pain of being different. The title of Jessica Dimmock’s short film gently posits that while cross-dressing may be no more or less of a social construct than conventional standards of gender-encoded styles of dress, hairstyle and behavior, nonconformity comes at an enormous cost.