At first glance, Amazon’s new documentary series “Always Jane” is another sweet look at the late teen years of an American girl living in a small New Jersey town: high school graduation, plans for the future, COVID restrictions.
Jane Noury lives a typical suburban life in Sparta. She’s the middle daughter of Laura and David Noury. She likes arts, film, music and social media. She likes modeling, loves spending time with her three dogs and adores her family.
She’s also trans.
Noury, who’s now 20 and enrolled as a freshman film major at the prestigious School of Visual Arts in New York City, is the subject of “Always Jane,” which premiered last week on Amazon Prime Video. Directed by Jonathan C. Hyde, the four-part series follows Jane on her journey of finding her place in the world as a young trans person in the U.S.
Noury first met Hyde in 2019, at a model search produced by the trans-exclusive modeling agency Slay Models, which is based in Los Angeles. Hyde, who was set to document the competition, traveled to New York to meet all the East Coast hopefuls. After meeting with Noury, the filmmaker became inspired by her story and gave her a camera so she could document her preparations leading to the model search.
“At that time I was a senior in high school … I was having my surgery coming up, I was deciding what college I wanted to go to,” Noury told the Daily News. “Then COVID hit, and I just kept on recording,” she said.
The footage then went from being a fun, behind-the-scenes look at a model competition into a triumphant story of family bonds, love and acceptance.
“It’s not only just a trans story, but it’s more of a coming-of-age story,” Noury said. “It’s about family. It’s about love. It’s about acceptance. It’s about being patient with one another. And it’s also about just living your life and being happy.”
In a time of unprecedented attacks on the rights of the transgender community in the U.S. — 2021 is already the year with the highest number of anti-transgender bills in state legislatures, according to the Human Rights Campaign — Jane’s inspiring relationship with her family is perhaps what’s most refreshing about the series.
“My parents have been great every step of the way. They always held my hand and cheered me on and encouraged me, and were there when I needed it — when I was having a good or bad day,” she said.
Noury’s picture-perfect acceptance story didn’t happen overnight, however. “We took our time with it. We went to doctors ... we really educated ourselves to make sure that this is what I wanted when I came out.”
While neither Noury nor her parents had all the answers, she said that “we were all learning it together” — which is something they achieved with a lot of patience and communication. “You have to talk to medical professionals, and really try to understand if being trans is you, if that’s how you feel on the inside,” she said.
If her parents ever messed up anything, she said she didn’t let herself feel affected by it. “We are a very open family, we laugh about it, and have a lot of communication going on. Because it was new for me as much as it was new for them,” she said.
“We’re just a normal family [who] just wants to be happy,” she said. “And live our lives.”
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