Adam’s Apple Chronicles a Trans Teen’s Life Across Two Decades

Visual Artist Amy Jenkins and her son Adam Sieswerda didn’t intend to make a film when they started documenting Adam’s adolescence. Filming was just natural for their family, building an archive of monumental milestones and quiet, ephemeral moments through 4K handheld filming, iPhone footage, and photographs. 

“I’ve always had a camera. My grandfather gave me a camera when I was about eight,” Director Amy Jenkins says about her documentary, Adam’s Apple, which just premiered at this year’s SXSW. 

 Amy and Adam only decided to craft this footage into a film within the last few years, reflecting on what it would mean to publish Adam’s story for other kids, adults, neighbors, and strangers to view. Adam is a trans man and transitioned early in his life, with access to healthcare, a supportive family, and the means to be able to make a medical transition a reality. Transition is never easy, but rarely do we see narratives where trans people undergo transition with such comprehensive support, especially when they’re children. 

 Navigating through the close to two decades worth of material was a daunting task, with editor Kristina Motwani helping assemble the “verité” handheld sections and Amy herself editing together what she coined the “motherhood archive,” sections spanning years and years that stick small heartfelt memories together. To ensure Adam’s voice didn’t feel limited to his childhood self, they added diary entries as voice-overs. The result is a symbiosis of creative identities that truly exemplifies a co-authored film from both perspectives.

This was imagined from every level, including the soundtrack. “The songs were all written by Adam in high school at the ages that he was at. They represent who he was at the time,” says Amy. 

“We wanted to do that because music was very much the way that I expressed myself creatively throughout high school,” Adam says. “[The songs] represent what I was feeling and how I was trying to [express that] in the actual footage of the film.” While many of these were drafts or lacked a mastered version, he took the time after to finalize each track. “I am releasing the soundtrack to the film on streaming services,” Adam says. “I’m currently finishing up the audio engineering on that, and it should be out very soon.”

 While the film might be framed as a story about transitioning, it’s just as much a story about a teenager growing up and navigating the boundaries of independence. Adam’s Apple shows Adam getting into his first relationship, his driver’s license (and subsequent first car wreck), his college, and even his first tattoo. His identity as a trans man informs each of these chapters but is never defined by it, a framework the two set out to establish from the start. “I really wanted to [show] a trans boy growing up with joy, alongside the struggles of both transition and growing up in general,” Adam says. “[I wanted to show the process of] figuring out who you are in the world and separating oneself from one’s family, of leaving home and the struggles of having a ‘political’ existence.”

 Adam hopes it can establish more relatability for those who find gender a taboo subject, even amongst cis audiences. “I went through many versions of myself, [figuring out] how to express my maleness and what I thought I could or couldn’t do to be taken seriously as a boy,” he says. “I feel strongly that it’s actually very universal. Everyone experiences their gender. Everyone has moments of reflection on it and moments of change and times where they need to really figure out what these labels mean to them in the world. Yes, I am a trans teen, so that puts gender in front of me very directly, but all of my peers who are boys who weren’t trans were going through these same changes and having to reckon with the same prejudices or the same struggles or the same questions that I had about myself.”

 As much as the film can act as a bridge to experience perspectives audiences may have never encountered before, a trans audience is still at the heart of the film. “[Growing up, there was] an absence of trans teen boys in media,” Adam says, “and I still find that [to be true]. For myself, I follow many trans influencers, and many of them are trans men who are older than me. I know as a teenager I wanted to see stories of trans boys who were the same age as me and going through the same things, not only the same things in transition but also just growing up, dealing with friends, dealing with school drama, and learning how to drive. All of these universal experiences of growing up as a teenager.”

 These issues of representation felt political for the two, especially with growing policies restricting—and many times eliminating—access to gender-affirming care for anyone in their adolescence. For the film team, showing someone who was under the age of 18 receiving this medical care and thriving is an important tool to combat misinformation and build understanding for those who may never have knowingly met a trans kid before.

 “Texas is a crucial state for trans rights and trans children’s rights,” Adam says. “I just hope that a diverse audience is able to see this and take away an understanding, or at least reflect on unconditional love for trans kids. They should have unconditional love.”

South by Southwest (SXSW), one of Austin’s premier festivals, returns with its 40th iteration March 12–18, with sections for music, technology, VR, TV, and film. For more information, visit sxsw.com/