Call Me Miles — An extraordinary journey

As part of this year's exciting online screening program, the 2023 South African Film Festival is proud to present Director Wynand Dreyer's fascinating documentary, "Call Me Miles". 

This poignant film gives the viewer an insight into the world of Miles, a young trans man from Pretoria and his journey to find his place in the world. Miles' transition story and its impact on his friends and family, particularly his parents, Marguerite and Deon, makes for compelling viewing. 

This South African Film challenges stereotypes and ignorance about gender identity.

Miles' parents share their child's early years as a happy, curious, and intelligent girl. However, their daughter's happiness unravelled in her teenage years and her enrolment in a strict all-girl high school. This restrictive single-sex environment and bullying from her peers reinforced her overwhelming feelings of being a young man trapped in a female body. 

Prepare to be moved by the extraordinary journey of Miles, a young Afrikaans man struggling to break free from the confines of a body that doesn't feel like his own.

Miles openly discusses the subsequent decline in his mental health, including depression, self-harm, and suicide attempts. Dreyer's film is also a portrait of parental love, as Marguerite and Deon strive to ease their cherished child's anger and pain.

The film also chronicles Miles' transition journey, culminating in his top surgery. This procedure, coupled with the support of his caring psychologist, finally allows Miles to achieve the harmony between his gender identity and the body he has desired since puberty. 

'Call Me Miles' is a must-see story of one person's search for happiness and acceptance in the face of life's challenges.

WATCH THE FILM HERE

'CALL ME MILES' MOVIE TRAILER

Call Me Miles film trailer

• 51 Minutes 
• 2022 DOCO, LGBTQIA+
• 15+ UNLESS ACCOMPANIED BY AN ADULT
• Call Me Miles is available to view online until 31 May 2021
• Watch the film here

Call Me Miles' is a revealing documentary that sheds light on the challenges Miles faces as a transgender South African on a quest for self-acceptance.

Call Me Miles Synopsis

Marguerite Robinson and Deon Maree's child was a happy little girl. She was intelligent, curious, loving and content. They were proud parents and Afrikaans Girls' High School in Pretoria could best develop their child's potential. High school coincided with puberty and Miles Robinson felt increasingly uneasy in his environment and also in his own body. The carefree child turned into a morbid adolescent who, in self-rejection, resorted to self-harm (cutting) and repeatedly tried to take his own life. He was a boy in a girl's body and hated himself. Call me Miles is the story of a middle-class Afrikaans family with extraordinary challenges.

It is a brutal story of shock, struggle, change and acceptance. It tells how ordinary people deal with their child's trauma, pain, depression and self-hatred. The film cuts to the bone. Call me Miles explores the life of a transgender individual from infancy to surgery where a total mastectomy was the only way out. We meet his friends, also his best friend from nursery school who later emigrated to Brisbane. They played together as little girls and Lawrence, unaware of Miles' circumstances, also went through a gender transition. They meet 12 years later as young transgender men. Call me Miles is the story of change, the search for a happy future and the yearning to be accepted. It's ultimately, a story of hope.

With stunning cinematography and an emotionally charged storyline, this is a must-see film that will open your eyes to a world of courage and resilience.

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