As part of our focus on equality and LGBTQ issues in film this year, we’re highlighting five shorts dealing with gender identity and coming of age. “A Place in the Middle” is the inspiring true story of a young girl in Hawaii who dreams of leading the boys-only hula group in her school. In “Stealth,” Sammy moves to a new school and struggles with revealing her true identity to her two new best friends. In “The Little Deputy,” Trevor tries to take a photo with his dad. Six-year-old Jeffrey loves wearing dresses and wigs in “Pink Boy”—but when he wants to dress up outside the house, his mothers have to teach him how to express his identity in potentially hostile environments. And Bendik helps the monster under his bed realize its dream of becoming a cabaret singer in “Bendik & the Monster.” Scheduled to Appear: “Pink Boy” Director Eric Rockey; “A Place in the Middle” Directors Dean Hamer and Joe Wilson, Subject Kumu Hina