Finding My Voice
2025 NOMINEE - BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
2025 NOMINEE - BEST NYC FILM
2024
United States / Switzerland
10 mins
Documentary Film Competition
| Rouven Gueissaz | |
| Rouven Gueissaz | |
This short student documentary is a crossed portrait of two transgender women working on their voices to make them sound more feminine and to match the new people they have become. One is 67 year-old Bernie Wagenblast, one of New York’s most famous voices. She is one of the male subway voices, heard by millions of commuters every day and feels comfortable with both of her voices. The other is 25 years-old Jade Stephan, who feels that her “old voice is something that she treasures as a thing she will not be bringing out for company”. She is currently seeing a voice therapist to help her work on her voice. This film explores their relationship to their voices and how voices can be a factor of integration into society.
About the Director
Rouven Gueissaz is a Swiss TV journalist and filmmaker, working in Bern for the political desk at RTS, the Swiss public TV in French. He has been covering Swiss politics over the past few years, after having spent 6 years in Zurich, as a correspondent for the Swiss French public radio. Rouven, 42, is passionate about people and their stories – what brings them together, what keeps them apart… and why. In 2024, he completed a short term documentary workshop at the New York Film Academy.
Interviews
Photos (Click on Photo to View)
Awards
2024 Tallgrass Film Festival – Audience Award For Short Documentaries
2024 Soho International Film Festival – Best Showcase Documentary Short (Co-Nominee)
