🤩💖 Adam’s Apple, dir. Amy Jenkins, 2026, USA, 99 min.
Friday, June 19, 2026, 5:30 PM, Roxie Theatre
🌉 Bay Area premiere
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| Adam’s Apple photo ©Amy Jenkins |
Frameline blurb: “I love watching time unfold.” Amy muses as she intently watches a caterpillar form into its chrysalis. Always with a camera in hand, Amy has been intentionally documenting time unfolding (a practice she says comes from simultaneously not wanting to let go while letting go) as seasons change, as constellations move across the night sky, and as her transgender child, Adam, grows up — even more so over the last eight years while the two have been filming this documentary together, shifting between gaze and subject with ease.
It is a privilege to witness the easy intimacy between mother and son, moments of resilience, humor, playfulness, vulnerability and realness, punctuated by simple, day-to-day “I love you’s.” Through the universality of their two lenses, we understand not only Adam’s gender but also Amy’s struggles parenting a teenager and grasping for the way things used to be before girlfriends, cars, college applications, and the pandemic. Fresh from its world premiere at SXSW, this beautifully intimate film is the story of three characters: a trans kid, a mother, and the ever-present march forward of time.
My take: In recent years, we have seen a remarkable explosion in films by and about trans youth. Last year’s Niñxs (Frameline49) was a spectacular example, and now we can add Adam’s Apple to that growing pantheon. We follow the subject, Adam Sieswerda, from starting school to graduating high school, with a bit of epilogue about the time since then, including college graduation. The close relationship between the subject and the filmmaker enables a trust that is difficult to foster in a documentary, so much so that, as Adam gets older, he occasionally turns the camera on his mother. The honesty of not only the moments of triumph but also the everyday challenges of life being/raising a teenager. One thing that shines through, though, is that Adam knew from early childhood that he was supposed to be a boy, and to their credit his parents supported their child thrugh the whole process of exploration and transition. They weren’t perfect parents — the father in particular had a difficult time letting go of the daughter he thought he had — but the foundation of love and support never wavered. (Added bonus: Adam himself composed and performed most of the music!)
This kind of self-assured honesty is an important counterbalance to the fear-mongering and “othering” of trans people that currently drives far too much of our political discourse. Watch this film with an open heart and mind, and you will be left with no doubt that trans identity is real and important and life-affirming. It’s a must see, not only for its honesty, but for the timeliness of the topic.
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