Project Detail

Trans In America: Texas Strong

Synopsis

An intimate documentary portrait of Kimberly and Kai Shappley directed by Daresha Kyi and produced by Lindsey Dryden and Shaleece Haas: A Christian mother rejects her community’s beliefs as her 7-year-old transgender daughter navigates life at school, where she’s been banned from the girls’ bathroom.
Official Selection SXSW 2019 - Documentary Shorts Competition

Details

Year
2018
Type of project
Shorts
Running time
18 min 5 sec
Format
Digital
Director
Daresha Kyi
Producer
Lindsey Dryden
Co-Producer
Shaleece Haas
Executive Producer
Molly Kaplan, Chase Strangio
Editor
Jamie Boyle
Director of Photography
Amy Bench
Composer
Nikky French
Principal cast
Kimberly Shappley, Kai Shappley
Advisory Board
Wriply Bennet, StormMiguel Florez, Sam Berliner, Janetta Johnson, Drian Juarez, and Debi Jackson.
Notes
Directed by an LGBTQ+ filmmaker, produced by an inclusive and majority-LGBTQ+ production team, and informed by a panel of transgender advisors.

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

UK, US co-production

Sales Company

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Charles Dickens on a horse animated by Hannah Brewerton Hot Favourites

Director: David Arthur

Year: 2026

Explores the secret life of the filmmaker's father, a former academic and English tutor, and the mystery of why he gambled eye-watering sums of cash, unbeknown to his family.

Two dancers in Zimbabwe The Rift

Director: Janire Najera and Matt Wright

Year: 2025

A fulldome dance film set amidst the rich and varied landscapes of Zimbabwe, where performers express the tension, resilience and interconnectedness between people and the natural world under the pressures of climate change. With their movements, the dancers explore the consequences of environmental disruption and the profound ways in which people and nature are intertwined. Through abstract choreography, symbolic imagery and an atmospheric score, the work reflects the planet’s vulnerability, the challenges posed by environmental shifts and the transformative potential of collective effort. As the dancers navigate these ever-changing locations, their movements evoke the escalating consequences of a warming world, capturing both its fragility and the urgent call for action.

Two hands hold a thread of wool during the process of weaving tartan The Weavers

Director: Callum McCulloch-Nowlan

Year: 2026

Rob Beaton has been weaving tartan and tweed in the Scottish Borders since he was 14. Now 84, he is Scotland's oldest and longest-serving mill worker, operating 100-year-old traditional shuttle looms. With no apprentice to carry on his craft, the mill where he has worked for over four decades may soon be forced to close. But elsewhere in Scotland, a different story is unfolding. At another mill in Highland Perthshire, a young apprentice is learning the trade, and the ancient rhythms of the looms are being passed to a new generation. Once, Scotland's textile industry employed nearly 75% of the population. Today, that figure stands at just 0.2%. Against the backdrop of that decline, the stories of these two mills paint a portrait of an industry at a crossroads. Through his film, Callum McCulloch-Nowlan celebrates the workers, machines, and spaces of Scotland's weaving tradition, while exploring the urgency of preserving a disappearing craft.