In a time where the loudest voices offering up their opinions and making decisions about trans people aren’t trans themselves, Adam Sieswerda, with his mother Amy Jenkins, provides a voice we need to be listening to in the documentary ADAM’S APPLE.

Amy is an accomplished artist who has been visually documenting her life since her grandfather gave her a Polaroid camera for her 8^th birthday, long before everyone had a movie camera in their pockets. Bonded by love and their creativity, Amy directs, produces, and films the documentary with Adam writing, contributing his own footage, and providing the beautiful score.

We open onto the quiet garden view of an idyllic New England home to follow teenage Adam through the next few years of his life. The film is punctuated by his birthday celebrations, interspersed with archive footage from Adam’s much younger years and the occasional creative flash to illustrate a moment or a thought.

He takes us with him on his journey to face the joys and challenges any teenage boy in the early 2020s might, plus a few more that go with being trans: taking testosterone for the first time, having top surgery, asking out his first girlfriend, hanging out with his friends, navigating COVID, learning to drive, applying for college, leaving home.

Adam’s excitement for his future is infectious and palpable. This is a young man who’s going to grab life by the horns.

It becomes clear that his identity was never a fad or passing whim, like many would have us believe. As with most trans people, Adam knew who he was from the moment he was able to express it, and whilst being an exceptional individual, the unremarkableness of his life is what’s most striking in this film. We’re also led to believe the lives of trans teens are full of confusion and trauma, but this shows us that there’s no real reason that needs to be the case.  That isn’t to say there can’t have been struggles or arguments, it’s just that we don’t really see them. Maybe there weren’t any, or maybe we can’t see them, and maybe we shouldn’t.

This is also a portrait of a loving, supportive family that occasionally stumbles, but always tries its best for each other. His mother is with him every step of his journey, listening to him, understanding him. His brother Elias seems carefree and full of joy, providing a couple of lovely laugh-out-loud moments, and I found the subtle growth in understanding from Adam’s devoted father John, to be especially poignant.

This is much-needed representation for trans kids, a message of reassurance for their families and a notice to the rest of us to leave people live their own lives in peace. In essence, it’s a message of hope, and as Harvey Milk once said, ‘You gotta give them hope.’ We should listen to Harvey, and we certainly need to listen to Adam.

10/10