This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Hot Docs Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Chase Strangio is a trans lawyer known for his efforts to protect the trans community. He works for the ACLU – the American Civil Liberties Union. Recently, the United States has been battling against the transgender community and taking away their rights after a long life of activism. In 2024, twenty-four of the fifty American states would ban gender-affirming care for trans individuals. The media, especially the right-wing conglomerates such as the Daily Wire and Fox News, spread false morals against the community. In December 2024, Strangio argued the most meaningful case of his career: United States vs. Skrmetti. In the case, the state of Tennessee has banned gender-affirming care according to the arguments of Matt Walsh, a far-right influencer. With the ACLU denouncing the law on the basis of gender discrimination, the case made Strangio the first openly trans attorney to argue in the American Supreme Court.
In Heightened Scrutiny, director Sam Feder (Disclosure) documents Strangio’s ongoing preparation leading up to the Supreme Court case. Avoiding his subject’s whole biography over its sub 90-minute runtime, Feder instead follows his instincts in what to reveal and what to omit. The director looks forward in terms of the context of what the case means for him and his community. A critical aspect of the thesis is how the Manhattan school board is discriminating against trans students. Here, audiences meet Mila, a twelve-year-old girl who excels in her studies. She is a polyglot and class representative, studying to apply to a competitive high school. Yet, the board discriminates against her solely based on her true self.
In this sense, Heightened Scrutiny argues on how media representation of the trans community influences public opinion, once left-leaning publications like the New York Times have opened their front page venue to op-eds arguing against hormonal treatment. In the film’s most engaging and compelling segment, multiple journalists and activists lecture on the participation of those articles in lawmaking. The lawmakers quote it in council hearings against trans rights. Also, the articles focus on a theoretical mistake and regret of transition rather than the factual danger of not treating trans teens and children with the correct therapy. It weighs on the hypocrisy of the public health discourse and how the right wing is targeting trans people.
However, Feder does not adequately balance Strangio’s life and the thematic complexity of gender-affirming care. It is a dense discussion that requires plenty of insights and conversations. Yet, the documentary approaches the first trans lawyer who defends the cause. It lacks a more engaged dive into the topic to escape the conventional structure. But most of the interviews and Strangio’s conversations are compelling enough to push the film’s narrative. In the end, the case is still open. It leaves a sentiment of an incomplete arch that is nowhere near finished. Feder decides to portray a chapter of a whole book on American discrimination and hatred against the trans community.
Heightened Scrutiny provides an inside look at the first trans lawyer to argue in the American Supreme Court. The result is a documentary that swings between themes, but feels mostly lacking.
Score: 70/100
*still courtesy of Hot Docs*
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Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.
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