THE MOST DANGEROUS YEAR is a Powerful Look at Transgender Rights
The Most Dangerous Year is a documentary that chronicles the battle for transgender rights in 2016. Sometimes the issues I’ve found with documentaries or docu-series are that they can feel one sided. Dangerous Year however doesn’t fall into that category. It’s a strong, well-thought out film that really sheds light into this issue.
The strength of the film is that it unfolds itself chronologically. Allowing for the viewer to experience the evolution of this issue in our culture. One of its’ biggest strengths is that it showcases that this is an issue that can effect individuals as you as three or four years of age. One of the biggest scenes to excellently back this up features an interview with two doctors who studied transgender brains versus cisgender brains. Featuring a stockpile of news footage, headlines and statistics that backup the issue and struggle of both how transgender struggle and how cisgender individuals see them or are effected by that.
The film balances a personal narrative of parents with a transgender daughter and a wider scope of how its’ affected the state of Washington and the nation as a whole. The personal narrative really allows the viewer to feel first hand how this war of politics effects families individually. While the wider scope invites you to experience how global this issue really is and how wide the debate goes.
The downfall of the film is that it does feel limited to Washington State. I know that transgender debate is happening and taking place all over the globe. For a good portion of this film it merely shows Washington State’s up and down battle for equal rights. It makes the film feel smaller than it could have been. However, it doesn’t take away from the power of the film.
Overall, The Most Dangerous Year does a great job at equipping viewers with statistics, honest accounts and the evolution of the transgender debate. However, it does have a downfall of feeling limited to Washington State. Dangerous Year , however, is nonetheless a powerful experience of a film and should be experienced by everyone. This is an important film that showcases the feelings, struggles and battles for an emerging community.
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