Film Review: Jack & Yaya (2019)

For too many LGBTQ+ people growing up, there is a grim reality of them being met with rejection and even hatred from their straight, cisgendered friends and family on coming out. Having any kind of support is so vital that it can be life-saving, especially for trans men and women. According to Stonewall, 89% (9 in 10) of trans people in England have thought about committing suicide. 

First-time directors Mary Greet and Jen Bagley’s documentary Jack & Yaya captures the importance and impact that the support of friends and family has on trans people’s lives, as it chronicles the ongoing friendship between the film’s eponymous subjects. Friends since their childhood living next door to each other in New Jersey, Jack and Yaya had an understanding of each other’s gender identities before anybody else in their families.

As both of them grew up, and the struggles of growing up with a gender identity discordant with their birth sex became clear, it is revealed that not only are Jack and Yaya in a rare position of having each other to lean on as old friends, but they also have the love and support of their families to help them through their transitioning journeys.

Hewey and Bagley are more than happy to allow this incredible story tell itself. And the film’s laidback, loose feel throughout means that Jack, Yaya and their families are able to paint the whole picture through their talking head pieces, interspersed with old home footage and childhood photos.

Their relatives interviewed for the film are completely candid about their reactions to the realisations that these two people aren’t who they thought they were, for better or worse. But there is never any doubt that everyone in both Jack’s and Yaya’s family have nothing but love and support for them. That positivity permeates through the documentary.

As the camera follows Jack and Yaya through their lives, the struggles outside of their family bubbles become clear. Yaya’s hoop-jumping to get her name changed with her local government is captured on-camera in all its frustration, albeit with Jack by her side to help her through the various phone calls. The care between friends is reciprocal throughout the film, whether it’s one trying to get the other through a hormone injection, or Yaya travelling from New Jersey to Massachusetts to support Jack’s recovery from a hysterectomy.

At the climax of the film, Jack, Yaya and their families are gathered together to watch their team win the Superbowl. It’s a special occasion for sure, but the simple, mundane act of watching sports as a family feels like something of a statement here. At a time where trans men and women are being aggressively persecuted and othered by so many, it’s vital that those same people are given the opportunity to show the world. And those who are being conditioned to hate and fear them, that trans people are just people. As Jack’s great uncle puts it in one beautifully considered moment, “all you need is frickin’ love”.