'Watch, Read, Think, Act' - NIÑXS

'Watch, Read, Think, Act' is a collaboration between Lighthouse and the fantastic team at Take One Action, the UK’s leading global change film festival.

Ahead of 2025's festival - taking place this week - our bookseller Pao watched NIÑXS an incredible documentary telling a young trans woman's coming of age story. Here are Pao's thought on the film and further reading:

I had the pleasure of watching (and adoring) NIÑXS, directed by Kani Lapuerta, a spectacular exploration of trans teenagehood, family and queer joy. I was born and raised in Mexico, so it was especially poignant to see Latinx queer narratives portrayed in a joyful light. As one of the therapists filmed in the documentary says - Mexican law may categorically protect queer people, but it doesn’t protect queer people from exclusion.

I loved Lapuerta’s emphasis on trans people telling their own narratives, shifting the focus from horror stories (at the beginning, main character Karla is convinced the film will end with her lying dead in a ditch) to moments of joy (I won’t spoil it for you, but it doesn’t end this way). These moments of joy range from shots of Karla’s close relationship with her parents, who support her unequivocally, to images of the connections she has with her gender-diverse group of friends.

Watch this film if you want to centre trans joy, if you’re curious about trans childhoods in the Global South or if you want a burst of sunlight on an otherwise dreary day.

Below, you'll find a list of books expanding on the film’s themes of trans childhoods, trans joy, queerness, queer youth and trans parenting. We hope you enjoy them as much as Pao has.

All books are available to order from Lighthouse, and tickets for the film are available from Take One Action HERE. Follow the conversation on Take One Action’s socials.

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In the rural small town of Tepoztlán, Mexico, fifteen-year-old Karla gets to tell her own coming-of-age story as she navigates the joys and complexities of trans adolescence. Irresistibly warm and funny, NIÑXS bursts the seams of documentary convention by dissolving the distance between filmmaker and subject. Director Kani Lapuerta and Karla reflect together on their transness as they watch eight years’ worth of footage documenting this formative period of Karla’s life: from trying out for the cheer team, playing with makeup, to being embarrassed by her loving and supportive parents. In an era where trans kids are spoken over and spoken for, NIÑXS sparkles with confidence, wit, and magic: a joyous demand that trans youth get to narrate their own stories.