This transgender artist documented her transition with PFLAG’s help

This new documentary gives an inside look into one artist’s transition into the woman she always knew she was.

On Saturday, PFLAG, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community and their families, released the documentary Pieces of Me. The short film, released in honor Transgender Day of Visibility, follows the story of Josyln DeFreece, a trans artist and activist, documenting life growing up in a conservative, Midwestern family, coming out as transgender in her teens, leaving the Midwest for the bright lights of New York City, and becoming the women she was born to be. With DeFreece’s personal footage, the film highlights the different pieces she needed to explore her purpose, self-acceptance, love, art, and sisterhood.

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“My passion lies in telling stories that invite viewers to question their own perspectives. Not necessarily to change them, but to challenge them to put themselves in someone else’s shoes for a moment, to build empathy. That’s my hope for Pieces of Me; that it will help to build that empathy,” DeFreece said in a press release. 

As an NYC-based actor, writer, producer, and activist, DeFreece has been developing new ways to bring trans representation into the media. She starred in the film Carla(a), which depicts one girl’s transition story, appeared in the Paramount+ series Strange Angel as a trans German woman who escaped the Nazis, and is currently on the Prime Video/Dekkoo show Marque and Hector. Additionally, DeFreeces has been featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, The Daily Show, and CNN.

And while DeFreece is used to telling the narratives of characters, PFLAG and the film’s director Oceano-Armendariz are turning the camera on DeFreece for her story to be told.

“I’m grateful to PFLAG National for supporting me and offering this platform and their resources to make this project,” DeFreece said. “I’m also grateful to my friend—and now collaborator—Nick Oceano-Armendariz.”

Oceano-Armendariz produced, directed, and wrote Pieces of Me and brings over sixteen years of work producing, writing, and directing documentaries, music videos, and commercials to the production. His feature film debut, Pedro, was written by Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black and follows the life of The Real World‘s Pedro Zamora, the first HIV-Positive gay man to appear on the series.

“As a queer, Latino filmmaker and activist for nearly two decades, I’m grateful to continue my partnership with PFLAG National to make films that give a platform to queer and BIPOC-inclusive stories,” Oceano-Armendariz said in a press release. “A year ago, I approached PFLAG National about making this film about Joslyn, my dear friend of 15 years. My hope was to create a piece that gives a better understanding of—and empathy for—trans people through a snapshot of her life as a woman, activist, and artist.

Since 2019, Oceano-Armendariz has collaborated with PFLAG to produce films around LGBTQ+ issues and runs and filmmaker incubator to support up-and-coming LGBTQ+ and BIPOC filmmakers, highlighting more stories like DeFreece’s.

“It was also important to me that the project include opportunities for me to mentor young queer and BIPOC artists,” Oceano-Armendariz said. “I’m grateful, then, to have been given the go-ahead to create this film, and to hire and mentor trans creators on our crew, including a young nonbinary director. PFLAG National, and my collaboration with Joslyn, have led to creating a beautiful piece that uplifts these stories at a time when the world really needs them—and reinvigorated my commitment to do all that I can for my community.”

Pieces of Me is streaming now on YouTube.

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