Dan Murdoch
Producer, director and author who specialises in documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4
Directing Transsexual Teen, Beauty Queen
Posted: 19/11/2012 00:00
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dan-murdoch/transsexual-teen-directing-transsexual-tee_b_2145115.htmlAnd so began my relationship with Jackie Green. In a way I suppose it set the tone. I would ask naïve, ill-informed questions, she would slap me down with a mixture of wit and derision. You see, when I set out on this journey I knew nothing of trans issues, and found myself blundering into bear pits of political correctness.
"Can I call you transsexual? Or transgender? Is there a difference?"
"You can call me Jackie."
Ouch.
The development team at Renegade Pictures found Jackie's story in the Metro - world's youngest transsexual to take on Miss England beauty pageant. They got hold of a number, it arrived on my desk, and from the moment Jackie answered I knew she would be great on camera. Feisty, combative, forthright, a natural micky taker and utterly utterly female. There is an unfair media caricature of transsexuals, but Jackie doesn't come near it. If she didn't want to tell her story you wouldn't stand a chance of working it out.
