Feature-Length Documentary | 2023–2025
Written, Directed & Produced by Naqmeh Hashemi
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Prefer Not to Say is a feature-length documentary exploring the lives of three trans men navigating identity, family, and acceptance in Iran. Against a backdrop of systemic stigma and personal struggle, the film traces a quiet, ongoing resistance: the determination to live authentically despite the risks of rejection and exclusion. Rather than seeking to explain what it means to be trans, the film centers the emotional cost of being rejected for who you are. Through intimate testimonies, silences, and stories shaped by what can and cannot be said, Prefer Not to Say explores the fragile boundaries between love, fear, belonging, and survival.
DIRECTOR’S REFLECTION
Making Prefer Not to Say was one of the most emotionally complex experiences of my life.
Over the course of more than a year, I interviewed 32 trans men and listened to deeply personal accounts of survival, silence, and resilience. Ultimately, only three agreed to be filmed. Their hesitation was not simply a matter of privacy or fear. It was also bound up with love: for their families, their partners, and the fragile hope that acceptance might still be possible.
As a director, my greatest challenge was ethical rather than technical. Stories that emerged during pre-interviews often changed once the camera was rolling. I came to understand that these omissions were not absences of truth, but expressions of the risks my participants faced. Speaking openly could threaten their relationships, livelihoods, and social standing.
At first, I worried that the film lacked an obvious conflict. Gradually, I realized that the conflict was already there, beneath the surface: the cost of silence, and the emotional labor of protecting the relationships that make life possible.
After leaving Iran, I knew that returning to continue filming could be extremely difficult. This changed how I approached the film and led me to reconsider silence not as an obstacle to the story, but as its central subject.
That is how the title emerged: Prefer Not to Say. It speaks to both what is expressed and what must remain unspoken.
MY ROLE & CONTRIBUTION
As the writer, director, and producer, I led the project’s development, research, interviews, narrative approach, and production planning. The film evolved through an extended process of listening, building trust, and reconsidering the ethical responsibilities of documentary storytelling.
My approach was shaped by the tension between the need to tell these stories and the responsibility to protect the people who entrusted them to me.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
- Format: Feature-Length Documentary
- Production Period: 2023–2025
- Country: Iran
- Primary Language: Persian
- Research: Interviews with 32 trans men
- Filmed Participants: Three trans men
- Current Status: Completed
CREDITS
Writer, Director & Producer: Naqmeh Hashemi
Cinematographer: Arman Nasiri
Editor & Colorist: Hanieh Babadi
Photographer: Rozhin Farrokhzad
Script Supervisor: Nafiseh Mosayebi
Graphic Designer: Ali Mehrabi
Special Thanks
Mohammad Kart, Freydun Jeyrani, Fereshteh Ahmadi, Dr. Atieh Talebpour, Elmira Nouranvar, Somayeh Hushyar, Sareh Rashidi, Asghar Pourali, Sima Akbarzadezadeh, Ali Alavi, Komeil Mohebian, Mina Ahmadi, Nastaran Alaie, Masiha Molaei and Amirali Fathalizadeh,
FESTIVAL & SCREENING HISTORY
Festival submissions and selections will be listed here as they are confirmed.
Behind the Scenes
