BORN TO BE follows the work of Dr. Jess Ting (he/him) at the groundbreaking Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery. There, for the first time ever in New York City, transgender and gender non-binary people have access to quality gender-affirming care.
With extraordinary access, this documentary offers an intimate look at how one doctor’s work impacts the lives of his patients as well as how his journey from renowned plastic surgeon to pioneering gender-affirming specialist has led to his own transformation.
Patient Bios
Dr. Ting's patients are as diverse as the city of New York itself. BORN TO BE follows the lives of a few of these engaging individuals:
Cashmere (She/Her)
Cashmere (who recently changed her name to Naomi) is part of an older generation of transgender women although much of her experience is still lived by many young black trans women of our time. Born and raised in the Bronx, she was 16 when she left home. On the streets, she lived a complicated, marginalized life. In order to transform herself, Cashmere used whatever money she could to augment her body with black market silicone, anything to make herself look like the woman that she is. Now Cashmere is seeing Dr. Ting for vaginoplasty and to undo the effects of the earlier harmful process.
Garnet Rubio (She/Her)
Garnet is a 22-year-old born and raised in Texas. Unlike many trans people, she has the full support of her family and is extremely close to her mother. Nevertheless, she lived a miserable childhood, bullied by her classmates. She moved to New York to pursue a modeling career, and began to test her identity in a city where she could express herself more anonymously. Not long after, she started to transition to female. At Mount Sinai, Garnet Rubio is one of Dr. Ting's first patients to undergo a new type of vaginoplasty. She also gets breast augmentation and a few months later, facial feminization.
Jordan (They/Them)
Jordan is nonbinary and uses the pronouns "they" and "them." A decade ago, Jordan's family and friends didn't understand what they were going through. Now, with Jordan's nurturing spouse Alister by their side, they have the support they need to go through their transitioning. The surgery Jordan undergoes is called the radial forearm flap (a key procedure that uses skin and tissue from the arm for the construction of a penis) and happens to be one of the first of its kind to be performed in New York.
Mahogany (She/Her)
Mahogany was once a successful male model and celebrity in South Africa but lost everything and had to seek disability assistance due to gender dysphoria. She was one of Dr. Ting's first vaginoplasty patients, and in 2017 returned to the clinic for facial feminization surgery - the first one that Dr. Ting performs alone. Mahogany's transitioning is a lonely experience, but she lives through it with remarkable bravery and excitement. Her dream is to go back to modeling, now as a woman. And pursue a life of feeling complete: in mind, body and soul.
Shawn (He/Him)
Shawn, who calls himself a "stealth male," signed up for the "Ting Phalloplasty," a type of surgery still in experimentation that Dr. Ting invented that adds realism and sensitivity to the phallus. It's potentially a game-changer in the field of gender affirming surgery, but it requires several stages of surgery, and a great deal of collaboration from patients who sometimes are eager to faster results. As a father of children from different relationships, Shawn has fought many battles to survive, including psychological traumas and financial hardships. And in the middle of his surgical transitioning, he lived in a homeless shelter.
Jess Ting (He/Him)
Dr. Ting studied music at the Juilliard School before switching careers to medicine. He attended medical school at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, followed by general surgery training at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, plastic surgery training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and a hand/microsurgery fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery. Most recently, Dr. Ting led Mount Sinai's first surgical genital reconstruction surgery for transgender and non-binary people -- a male-to-female operation called vaginoplasty. As of fall of 2019, Dr. Ting’s team has performed more than 1,200 transgender surgeries, making Mount Sinai one of the busiest medical institutions in the country.
Team
Directed by
Tania Cypriano
Produced By
Michelle Koo Hayashi
Executive Producers
Susan Norget
Michelle Koo Hayashi
J Winkelried
Molly Fowler
Co-Producers
Tania Cypriano
Jessica Kingdon
Rachel Mills
Consulting Producer
Heidi Reinberg
Cinematography
Jeffrey Johnson
Editors
Christopher White
Scott K.Foley
Original Music By
Troy Herion
With Support From:
The Made in NY Women's Film, TV & Theatre Fund by the City of New York
Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment in association with The New York
Foundation for the Arts