Australian director Nicholas Sweeney’s new Channel 4 series Born in the Wrong Body has garnered a strong audience of more than one million on its debut in the UK.
The three-part documentary series follows the lives of some of the youngest transgender people in the UK and America as they and their families make life changing decisions at astonishingly young ages.
It follows the roaring success of the former University of Technology Sydney student’s fascinating debut documentary Secrets of the Living Dolls.
Secrets of the Living Dolls looks at ‘female maskers’- men who dress up as rubber dolls in order to look like, and pretend to be, glamorous and beautiful women. The transformation includes a full body suit (complete with breasts and a vagina) as well as wigs, make up and face masks.
Sweeney told IF Secrets of the Living Dolls had 2.9 million viewers (4 million combined first week) on the UK's Channel 4 and was broadcast internationally on TLC (USA), ABC2 (Australia) and other channels last year.
“I got to direct it because I brought the idea to the channel and production company,” he said.
“I’m now Series Director and Producer on a new Channel 4 series called Born in the Wrong Body, which I originated about young transgender people aged 5 – 25 in the US and UK.
“So far we’ve had some great reviews."
Good Morning Britain called it “a groundbreaking new series”; The Independent reported it was “sensitively handled and heartbreaking”; Cosmopolitan said it will "will move you to tears”), and it was number on Twitter when it debuted.
The three 1×60 documentaries were commissioned by Channel 4 Education commissioning editor Emily Jones.
They were produced by Firecracker Films with series producer/director Nick Sweeney and executive producers Tom Barry and Jes Wilkins.
The series has already received positive reviews.
Sweeney said he was proud of the new series, and of the incredibly brave transgender children and young adults who featured in it alongside their amazing families.
“It was a privilege to be able to help them share their stories, for which I’m grateful,” he said.
The first instalment, My Transgender Kid, follows two ordinary British families as they attempt to navigate the extraordinary challenges of having a 7-year old-child who was born the wrong gender.
The parents are faced with decisions few others could comprehend, from changing pronouns to letting their kids go to school as their chosen gender risking bullying and judgment.The second part, Girls to Men, follows young three young Brits going through extraordinary transformations to fulfil their dream of becoming men.
The film features unprecedented access to surgical procedures including breast removal and phalloplasty – the creation of their own, functioning penises.
The film also meets the increasingly confident online community of young trans men baring everything on social media.
The last film of the series, My Transgender Summer Camp, features exclusive access to a controversial American camp for transgender adolescents and their parents.
As well as summer fun, they must face huge dilemmas including whether or not to start taking hormones to stop the onset of male puberty.