Upside Down

Ten years old and still reeling from her parents' divorce, a curious girl strikes up a friendship with the transgender woman who lives in her building. Her mother, uneasy and protective, forbids the relationship, but the girl keeps finding her way back to a neighbor who treats her with more honesty and warmth than most of the adults in her life. Directed by Shira Levin and featuring Amira Daigle, Autumn Weisz, Carol Jacobanis and Tim Hache, this twenty-minute American short blends comedy and drama as it looks at prejudice through a child's clear eyes. Light on its feet but sincere about its subject, Upside Down is a story about the friendships that form across the lines grown-ups draw, and about a girl who learns early that the people who understand you are not always the ones you are told to trust.