Review: Raindance Opening Night Gala

A personal and intimate journey

As basic and as cliche it might sound we all want to fit in, be accepted, have friends, and just simply be happy. If you ask me, I think every single one of us has the right to this. However, we all are different, coming from different backgrounds, cultures, with different traditions and religions so my “normal” might not go head to head with your “normal”.

In recent years so much time and effort have been dedicated towards people accepting one another, putting fewer stereotypes onto each of us and just try to focus more on our own happiness. The things that make us different are quite often the things that make us interesting. Nonetheless, the language of acceptance can change drastically when the topic shifts to gender reassignment. But what if you don’t feel happy in the body you’re in, don’t feel like yourself. Should you then just ignore it all?

In the documentary “Krow’s TRANSformation” we follow Krow and his journey of 3 years to becoming a man. Krow – who for the majority of his life for his family and friends was Kayanna shares her (at the beginning of the movie you can see Krow giving interviews prior to starting his transition) struggles and questions from a rather early age on gender and is there a difference between a boy and a girl. How, probably just like any teenager, she was trying to find herself and what made her feel the best and happy in her own skin. The journey starts from Krows childhood touching upon very important milestones, not all of them might be pleasant, however, each one of them leads Krow closer to the final decision to transition and go with what he feels is the rights thing to do. It takes the viewer on a very personal and intimate journey through the lowest lows, where a thought of suicide creeps in Krow’s mind, the highest high, where Krow gets his first hormone show and is ecstatic and moments where it’s just pure breaking of stereotypes and stigma. The viewer becomes like a part of Krow’s inner circle of friends and family, whom you get to meet during the documentary and see their point of view and perspective on it all.

Director Gina Hole Lazarowich’s does a beautiful job of not only showing the facts and statistics, which at times can be scary but also the emotional side of transitioning not only to the person that decides to do it but the people around as well. It’s not glamorised, taking into consideration that prior to transitioning Krow was a model. It shows all the struggles that Krow had to go through – bullying at school, fighting stereotypes coming from society and wondering if her parents will approve of this decision, as well as tiny victories he had achieved, him starting his hormone treatments, meeting people that supported his journey,… It requires a lot of trust between the director and the talent taking into consideration that it covers such a taboo topic.

Krow’s TRANSformation invites you to have a conversation, would that be with yourself, your neighbor or a person you just met on the street, because the things are just black and white, rights or whore, there are a lot more involved. And at the end of the day, we all want to be happy and be accepted. I believe that this is what Krow wants as well. It’s good to see this kind of project come to life and just trying to break the stigma and stereotypes as well as giving a voice to people that have gone through it all, because nobody, but them know how it all feels.

Gina Hole Lazarowich’s debut documentary Krow’s TRANSformations is the Opening Night Gala film for the 27th Raindance film Festival. Gina and Krow and more people from the documentary will attend the Q&A session with the audience after the film. You can find more information on the movie over here and the trailer is right below!