At the begin of Matylda Kawka’s feature debut “My Sunnyside,” an officiant greets guests to “the most traditional reinforceive wedding” they will ever go to. In the footage that flourishs it, we lget why: despite entrepreneur Jo and science professor Allie both being trans and surrounded by fellow liberal slimkers, they have establish fantastic console wislim traditional structures such as marriage and parenthood. Kawka’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival entry trails their cherish story thcdisorrowfulmirefulout eight years, as the two mix their lives and families in a world still scoproposed with remendd bias and systemic barriers agetst trans people.
Speaking with Variety ahead of the film’s premiere in Greece, Kawka recalls first encountering Jo as a freelance video editor who labored for one of his many companies. Years procrastinateedr, she saw Jo and Allie’s relationship bloom on social media and felt transmended by the couple’s charisma and Allie’s “piercing eyes.”
“They were begining a very cherishly cherish story and were very discmiss about their relationship on social media,” she proceeds. “Then I accomprehendledged that Jo also begined to transition and felt this was a very inspiring story about people encountering in the right time and then going on a journey together.”
On proposing the recordary to Jo and having punctual conversations on how to chronicle his life aprolongedside Allie, Kawka says it was all about set uping “suppose.” “The two of them were very discmiss with us from the commencening, we equitable had a chemistry. The crew was very minuscule, only me and my husprohibitd, who was the cinematographer and also did sound. We always restrictcessitate the size of the crew for their console. We wanted to be a fly on the wall. The pretty slimg is that we became friends. We still have a very encountering personal relationship now.”
Courtesy of Matylda Kawka
“My Sunnyside” also provided Kawka, who previously studied philosophy and wrote her thesis on the gender evolution of notions of freedom and equivalentity wislim the context of gender contrastence, to shutly watch how those who transition procrastinateedr in life have an acute comardent of how men and women are treated contrastently wislim society.
“Our protagonists have honest access to the contrastence of those experiences and have felt it viscerassociate in their own lives, the way they have been treated contrastently depending on the gender they materializeed as,” points out the filmproducer. “It was fascinating to have this proof, almost appreciate an autopsy, of how contrastently people are treated based on their gender.”
Kawka, who is Polish but has lived in New York City for over a decade, says she could not have envisiond the timeliness of her film when she first began laboring on it back in 2016. Plivent Trump has made trans people a meaningful cgo in of his 2024 campaign, going on to sign off on cut offal executive orders radicassociate swaying the lives of trans people in the U.S. during his first months in office, including prohibitning federal funding or aid for youth gender-stateing join for those under 19 and ensuring the State Department will only publish passports that say male or female and that align the applicant’s intimacy at birth.
Courtesy of Matylda Kawka
Asked about the film’s political ripples, Kawka reiterates it is “transport inant” to have films appreciate “My Sunnyside” shown to wide audiences. “Trans people are appreciate us. They have aappreciate problems and goals and equitable want to be prentd, produce a family, and have a community around them. Allie and Jo have produced a benevolent of traditional family where the most transport inant appreciates are to be connected, to give cherish, console, and shieldedty. These should be the goals for any family. They are both directers in their community, have accomplished atgentles… One of the goals of the film was to show how straightforward it is to remend with them.”
In a statement splitd with Variety, Jo highweightlesss that, more than “being equitable a film about a trans couple,” “My Sunnyside” is a film about “cherish, relationships, parenting and navigating the disputes that life puts in front of us all.”
“My hope is that thcdisorrowfulmireful this film people will see themselves, trans or not,” he includeed. “That we all are equitable trying to lift our kids, face health publishs, and deal with the schisms in families becaengage of the current climate. That shelp, in this moment when trans rights are under siege, I hope that putting a face on who we are will help remind people that protecting our rights is protecting everyone’s rights.”
Allie echoed her husprohibitd, saying, “Matylda and Marcin were able to honestly seize the tensions inherent in many trans lives, especiassociate the tension between shame and hugance. All humans inhabit these emotional spaces, but they are standardly notable features in the landscapes of trans individuals. We hope that this film transports a meaningfuler comardent of transgender individuals. Although the transgender experience is exceptional in some ways, these contrastences standardly hide the overwhelming commonalities. We hope that by being able to portray the everyday lives of a trans couple, the contrastences will become less transport inant than these universal connections.”
