Manning Up
James Lórien MacDonald – Jamie to his friends – has come a long way since he thought he was the world’s worst lesbian. At 37 years old, he begins testosterone treatments as he transitions from female to male, and at the same time shakes up his fledgling stand-up comedy career by taking every audience with him on this bewildering testosterone-fuelled ride.
Director: Aira Vehaskari
Aira Vehaskari started her storytelling career as a foreign correspondent and photojournalist in crisis areas and the developing world. She has a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, and has worked all over the world, from the Brazilian rainforests to the minefields of Cambodia. She began producing a number of short docs as a journalist for the Finnish National Broadcasting Company Yle and CNN before turning her skills to half-hour films. These include The Mountain Year (Vuosi Vuoristossa), a story of an ageing peacekeeper in Afghanistan, The Girl Can Play (Pasuunarakkautta), a tragedy and re-birth of a Finnish trombonist in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina, and Manning Up, a comedy documentary about a trans-man stand up comic's first years on testosterone. A dual American-Finnish citizen, she is currently based in New Orleans.