Passing Ellenville

Passing Ellenville follows two transgender youths in a small, economically-depressed town in the Catskills mountains of New York struggling through their gender transition process. James, female-to-male, comes from a history of abuse and a string of family problems. Ashlee, male-to-female, struggles to align her orthodox Jewish faith with her transgender identity. The film exposes a side of transgender youth we have not seen in the national news media. These are young trans people at the margins of society, living in Any Town, USA, barely surviving on government assistance and food stamps and facing tremendous prejudice and hate. However, the film also shows how each of these young people finds their own pockets of happiness in their life journey.