In the north of Montreal, there is a clinic unique of its kind in Canada: a private hospital center which, since 1973, has specialized in gender affirmation surgeries. For the first time in more than 50 years of existence, the GrS Montreal has allowed a television crew to film within its walls, meeting some of its patients and its healthcare team.
Director and screenwriter Émilie Ricard-Harvey (The good life with Go-Van) and his collaborators have drawn from this experience a very beautiful documentary series, at least if we rely on the first episodes (out of eight) that we have been able to see. A new day can be easily compared to On call 24/7 by its way of leaving all the room to its contributors, whose remarks thus weave the narrative thread, without the support of a narration, which here would seem superfluous anyway.
Each of the episodes is built around a person ready to go under the knife, who we follow through the different stages of his passage to the GrS. Alongside these stories fueled by heartfelt confidences from patients about their life course and their transformation process, the series gives pride of place to the testimonies of healthcare personnel, from specialist surgeons to nursing assistants and other professionals, who explain the nature of their work and the many (and good) reasons that motivate them to do so.
This benevolent foray is also worth a visit for its clear way of explaining (and showing, to some extent) the various existing gender-affirming interventions, which still remain for many a mystery.
To see in video