She's a boy i knew

"Haworth creates an emotional space that engulfs the viewer in a way that's extremely rare in any film, whether fiction or non-fiction."

- Kevin Griffin, The Vancouver Sun

Biography

Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Gwen Haworth is a transgender filmmaker, editor, and instructor. After graduating with a degree in psychology in 1995, Gwen went on to complete undergraduate and graduate degrees in Film Production at the University of British Columbia. She has trained as a director's intern with the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television and served as a programmer and board member for Out On Screen, which holds Vancouver's Queer Film & Video Festival.

Critical of the construct of objective filmmaking, Haworth's films embrace a point of view approach that strive for empathy and collective storytelling. Her first short film Not Kokura re-examines the WWII bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, questioning the use of weapons of mass destruction on primarily civilian targets. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and received recognition at a number of North American festivals.

Between 2000 and 2004, Gwen came out as transsexual to her friends and family and transitioned genders from male to female. During this process, she became painfully aware of the media's marginalized depictions of trans individuals, often as victims of discrimination & violence or objects of fetish. In She's A Boy I Knew, Haworth turns the camera on her own family, capturing an intimate, complex, and emotionally ground-breaking account of their journeys through this experience.

When not making films, Gwen divides her time teaching film production at post-secondary institutions, working at an emergency homeless shelter, and DJing for fundraisers and non-profit events in Vancouver's Eastside.