1994; R: Alec Behrens und Marjin Muijser

This documentary goes to the heart of the dangers of being a transsexual prostitute in one of the world’s most violent cities, New York. Few transsexual prostitutes make it to their 24th birthday or to their dream of becoming a fully-fledged woman. Some disappear in the streets violently, others are wasted away by crack or AIDS. A few who can’t cope with the hormonal and psychological disorders that come with changing sex commit suicide. I Don’t Wanna Be a Boy centers on six young men, blacks and hispanics between the ages of 16 and 23, from the gettos in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Some still go to school or manage to hold down a job, but most of them live at night selling their bodies. With them, we explore the lengthy process of changing sex. They explain their motives, their ideals and their dreams. Although few will actually submit to surgery—either out of fear or lack of money—they pump their bodies with estrogen or get castrated. No longer men, but never women, they hover on the margin of society and the underworld, unable to escape from the vicious circle of hustling and poverty.