A Texas Son
Oxford, Mississippi | Film Feature
Documentary, LGBTQ
A Texas Son is a love letter from a transgender son to his father, charting a decade of mental health, identity, and masculinity, confronting the gender roles prescribed at birth and embracing the freedom of shedding them. Come join our family and help bring this project to life.
Green Light
This campaign raised $12,640 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
98 supporters | followers
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A Texas Son is a love letter from a transgender son to his father, charting a decade of mental health, identity, and masculinity, confronting the gender roles prescribed at birth and embracing the freedom of shedding them. Come join our family and help bring this project to life.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Hi, my name is Cody Stickels, and welcome to the crowdfunding campaign for A Texas Son. I was born in small-town Texas, an undercover queer kid learning to navigate a world that didn’t quite have a place for me. Moving to New York City for college was a liberation and a challenge: I was stepping into my transgender identity, but it was so much harder than I had expected.
Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to me, my father was going through his own identit crisis back in Texas. I was across the country in New York when I learned of his suicide attempt, and it hit me like a freight train. That moment changed everything for me, for him, and for my family. Over ten years, I’ve documented my relationship with him, and the process of making this film becomes the force that not only changes us both but ultimately brings us closer together.
The prescriptive gender roles imbued in Texan culture gave us clear directives for who we were in the world: a “cowboy” hero of the legal defense system and “his little girl.” As I step further into my truth as a trans man, my Dad begins to shed his own armor, confronting his mental health around his job, his fears about vulnerability, and the deep love he struggles to express. Using vérité footage, family archives, and poetic visual interludes shot on Super-8 film, A Texas Son explores what happens when two people—a father and son—learn to truly see each other.
As a non-binary and trans filmmaker, I tell this story through a gender-expansive lens. If my father had not seen me as his daughter at the beginning of the movie, we wouldn't have been able to achieve the same level of closeness and understanding. This is a story that needed time to grow because it’s my lived experience, and I needed time to live it.
Now, after putting in the hard work (and a few years of therapy), I have a radical vision for the film as both a work of art and a vehicle for change. At a time when identity and belonging are often debated in the abstract, A Texas Son offers something more human: the catharsis of a ten-year journey, the kind of healing that only time, and a little therapy, can bring.
 (1080p) Copy 01.00_00_05_00.Still016.jpeg)
This film matters now because stories of transgender people rooted in family, love, and lived reality remain rare, especially in conservative states like Texas. At the same time, men’s mental health is in crisis, yet conversations about depression and suicide are still often met with silence or stigma. This documentary doesn’t gloss over the hard parts or dwell in despair; it stays with the messiness, showing how families keep showing up for one another, offering a model of connection that feels urgently needed today.
I never set out to become a character in this film. But ten years have passed, and life has a way of changing the story. Now, as the director of a documentary about myself and my family, I need a little distance to reflect and shape the film. Editing a film about yourself? Would not recommend. (Kidding. Mostly.) That’s why I’m asking for your help to continue working with our editor, Kel Embry, and bring this story to life.
This funding supports post-production, the exciting stage where ten years of filming becomes a cohesive story. Editing gives us the space to reflect on the time it took to live and document this journey. The funding will also support our team’s final film shoot in Texas this summer for pickup shots and Texas landscape footage. We have volunteered our talent and time, driven by a passion to make this story possible. So, in that spirit, every dollar raised goes directly toward covering the essential post-production work that makes this final film possible.
Your support will directly help with the editing process, including:
- Shaping ten years of footage into a cohesive story
- Paying for the editor’s time and expertise
- Backing up, organizing, and storing large amounts of footage safely
- Creating a final version ready to share with audiences
- Processing the last of our 8mm footage
- Click "Follow" - to show that people care about stories like this one.
- Contribute - each contribution nudges us toward finishing the film.
- Share the story - copy the campaign link; here's something you can say: “I’m so excited to share a story that’s been ten years in the making. This film is about family, mental health, and the courage it takes to show up for the people you love. Check it out and help support the final edit!”
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to A Texas Son through our fiscal sponsor, Film Independent, please reach out: [email protected]
Do you work at a company that matches donations? Please reach out to find out how we can stretch your donation even further!
From our family to yours, thank you!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
1 Month of Editing w/ Kel Embry at Lucky Day
Costs $5,000
We have a fantastic collaboration with editor Kel Embry & the Lucky Day team, ready to edit the film! This will go towards 1 month of Edit.
Second Month of Editing w/ Kel Embry at Lucky Day
Costs $5,000
We have a fantastic collaboration with editor Kel Embry & the Lucky Day team, ready to edit the film! This will go towards 1 month of Edit.
Travel Costs
Costs $2,000
Flights + Car Rentals for our crew for our final shoot in Texas this summer!
Camera, Lens & Lighting Rental
Costs $2,000
Camera, lens & lighting rentals for our final shoot in Texas this summer!
8mm Footage Processing
Costs $1,000
This will cover the fees to process our 8mm film footage to include in the film!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
The team behind A Texas Son is more like family than crew. Cinematographer Matt Heymann, a close college friend, has been part of this journey for eight years, traveling to Texas to help capture the story. Alongside him, producer Chelsea Moore, who joined the team in 2017 and became my partner in life in 2022, brings her experience and heart to the project. This isn’t just a documentary team—it’s a family, and we’re inviting you to join us!
Director
From Brooklyn's nightlife scene to the oil fields of West Texas, Cody (he/they) is drawn to character-driven stories that unite audiences. He holds a BFA in Film & TV from New York University and an MA from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Cody is a 2025-2026 Chicken & Egg (Egg)celerator Lab cohort member and was selected for the 2024 Film Independent Documentary Story Lab. His last film, A Night at Switch n’ Play, won the audience award for Best Documentary at NYC's NewFest Film Festival and screened internationally at festivals such as BFI Flare, Inside Out, and Woodstock.
Producer
Chelsea Moore (they/she) is a femme filmmaker and producer who strives to cultivate healing work and relationships with creators, participants, and audiences. They are a fellow of the Sundance Producers Intensive, the Black Public Media Incubator, and the Film Independent Documentary Producers Lab. In addition to their producing work, Chelsea is a Documentary Producers Alliance member, co-chair of the DPA Union Research subcommittee, co-founder of the Coalition of Documentary Workers, and associate programmer at Tribeca Film Festival.
Director of Photography
Matt Heymann is a producer and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY, with over a decade of experience crafting stories for film and video. In 2020, he founded the creative production company Forte, overseeing commercial and documentary work with clients such as Volvo, GrubHub, Mars, and Applegate. Matthew's documentary films have won awards at numerous festivals, including the Woodstock Film Festival and Newfest. His most recent project, Navy Beach, is a feature film starring Tim Blake Nelson.
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Editor
Kellan Embry is an award-winning editor based in Portland, Oregon. She brings her talents to both feature films and short-form projects, with clients including Google, Pas Normal, Hatch, and more. She co-directed the Field of Vision short Concerned Student 1950 (2016), and her student film Welcome to Normal (2017) was programmed at the 2018 First Look Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. She served as assistant editor on Robert Greene’s award-winning film Bisbee ‘17 (2018) & Alex Ross Perry’s critically acclaimed female punk film Her Smell (2018). Kellan edited Douglas Tirola’s feature documentary, Bloodroot (2019), which premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival. She graduated in the inaugural class of the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Filmmaking Friends:
Story Producer: Chris Shellan
Producer Spettacolo and Marwencol; Co-producer Steve! (Martin)
Production Advisor: Christine O'Malley
Producer of Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields and Miss Americana
Edit advisor: Jeff Malmberg
Editor Marwencol, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and Saint of Second Chances
Lucky Day
As We Speak, Pas Normal, and Edge of the Earth: Season 2, Episode 4
Supporting Organizations:
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Hi, my name is Cody Stickels, and welcome to the crowdfunding campaign for A Texas Son. I was born in small-town Texas, an undercover queer kid learning to navigate a world that didn’t quite have a place for me. Moving to New York City for college was a liberation and a challenge: I was stepping into my transgender identity, but it was so much harder than I had expected.
Coincidentally, and unbeknownst to me, my father was going through his own identit crisis back in Texas. I was across the country in New York when I learned of his suicide attempt, and it hit me like a freight train. That moment changed everything for me, for him, and for my family. Over ten years, I’ve documented my relationship with him, and the process of making this film becomes the force that not only changes us both but ultimately brings us closer together.
The prescriptive gender roles imbued in Texan culture gave us clear directives for who we were in the world: a “cowboy” hero of the legal defense system and “his little girl.” As I step further into my truth as a trans man, my Dad begins to shed his own armor, confronting his mental health around his job, his fears about vulnerability, and the deep love he struggles to express. Using vérité footage, family archives, and poetic visual interludes shot on Super-8 film, A Texas Son explores what happens when two people—a father and son—learn to truly see each other.
As a non-binary and trans filmmaker, I tell this story through a gender-expansive lens. If my father had not seen me as his daughter at the beginning of the movie, we wouldn't have been able to achieve the same level of closeness and understanding. This is a story that needed time to grow because it’s my lived experience, and I needed time to live it.
Now, after putting in the hard work (and a few years of therapy), I have a radical vision for the film as both a work of art and a vehicle for change. At a time when identity and belonging are often debated in the abstract, A Texas Son offers something more human: the catharsis of a ten-year journey, the kind of healing that only time, and a little therapy, can bring.
This film matters now because stories of transgender people rooted in family, love, and lived reality remain rare, especially in conservative states like Texas. At the same time, men’s mental health is in crisis, yet conversations about depression and suicide are still often met with silence or stigma. This documentary doesn’t gloss over the hard parts or dwell in despair; it stays with the messiness, showing how families keep showing up for one another, offering a model of connection that feels urgently needed today.
I never set out to become a character in this film. But ten years have passed, and life has a way of changing the story. Now, as the director of a documentary about myself and my family, I need a little distance to reflect and shape the film. Editing a film about yourself? Would not recommend. (Kidding. Mostly.) That’s why I’m asking for your help to continue working with our editor, Kel Embry, and bring this story to life.
This funding supports post-production, the exciting stage where ten years of filming becomes a cohesive story. Editing gives us the space to reflect on the time it took to live and document this journey. The funding will also support our team’s final film shoot in Texas this summer for pickup shots and Texas landscape footage. We have volunteered our talent and time, driven by a passion to make this story possible. So, in that spirit, every dollar raised goes directly toward covering the essential post-production work that makes this final film possible.
Your support will directly help with the editing process, including:
- Shaping ten years of footage into a cohesive story
- Paying for the editor’s time and expertise
- Backing up, organizing, and storing large amounts of footage safely
- Creating a final version ready to share with audiences
- Processing the last of our 8mm footage
- Click "Follow" - to show that people care about stories like this one.
- Contribute - each contribution nudges us toward finishing the film.
- Share the story - copy the campaign link; here's something you can say: “I’m so excited to share a story that’s been ten years in the making. This film is about family, mental health, and the courage it takes to show up for the people you love. Check it out and help support the final edit!”
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to A Texas Son through our fiscal sponsor, Film Independent, please reach out: [email protected]
Do you work at a company that matches donations? Please reach out to find out how we can stretch your donation even further!
From our family to yours, thank you!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
1 Month of Editing w/ Kel Embry at Lucky Day
Costs $5,000
We have a fantastic collaboration with editor Kel Embry & the Lucky Day team, ready to edit the film! This will go towards 1 month of Edit.
Second Month of Editing w/ Kel Embry at Lucky Day
Costs $5,000
We have a fantastic collaboration with editor Kel Embry & the Lucky Day team, ready to edit the film! This will go towards 1 month of Edit.
Travel Costs
Costs $2,000
Flights + Car Rentals for our crew for our final shoot in Texas this summer!
Camera, Lens & Lighting Rental
Costs $2,000
Camera, lens & lighting rentals for our final shoot in Texas this summer!
8mm Footage Processing
Costs $1,000
This will cover the fees to process our 8mm film footage to include in the film!
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
The team behind A Texas Son is more like family than crew. Cinematographer Matt Heymann, a close college friend, has been part of this journey for eight years, traveling to Texas to help capture the story. Alongside him, producer Chelsea Moore, who joined the team in 2017 and became my partner in life in 2022, brings her experience and heart to the project. This isn’t just a documentary team—it’s a family, and we’re inviting you to join us!
Director
From Brooklyn's nightlife scene to the oil fields of West Texas, Cody (he/they) is drawn to character-driven stories that unite audiences. He holds a BFA in Film & TV from New York University and an MA from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Cody is a 2025-2026 Chicken & Egg (Egg)celerator Lab cohort member and was selected for the 2024 Film Independent Documentary Story Lab. His last film, A Night at Switch n’ Play, won the audience award for Best Documentary at NYC's NewFest Film Festival and screened internationally at festivals such as BFI Flare, Inside Out, and Woodstock.
Producer
Chelsea Moore (they/she) is a femme filmmaker and producer who strives to cultivate healing work and relationships with creators, participants, and audiences. They are a fellow of the Sundance Producers Intensive, the Black Public Media Incubator, and the Film Independent Documentary Producers Lab. In addition to their producing work, Chelsea is a Documentary Producers Alliance member, co-chair of the DPA Union Research subcommittee, co-founder of the Coalition of Documentary Workers, and associate programmer at Tribeca Film Festival.
Director of Photography
Matt Heymann is a producer and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, NY, with over a decade of experience crafting stories for film and video. In 2020, he founded the creative production company Forte, overseeing commercial and documentary work with clients such as Volvo, GrubHub, Mars, and Applegate. Matthew's documentary films have won awards at numerous festivals, including the Woodstock Film Festival and Newfest. His most recent project, Navy Beach, is a feature film starring Tim Blake Nelson.
Editor
Kellan Embry is an award-winning editor based in Portland, Oregon. She brings her talents to both feature films and short-form projects, with clients including Google, Pas Normal, Hatch, and more. She co-directed the Field of Vision short Concerned Student 1950 (2016), and her student film Welcome to Normal (2017) was programmed at the 2018 First Look Festival at the Museum of the Moving Image. She served as assistant editor on Robert Greene’s award-winning film Bisbee ‘17 (2018) & Alex Ross Perry’s critically acclaimed female punk film Her Smell (2018). Kellan edited Douglas Tirola’s feature documentary, Bloodroot (2019), which premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival. She graduated in the inaugural class of the Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Filmmaking Friends:
Story Producer: Chris Shellan
Producer Spettacolo and Marwencol; Co-producer Steve! (Martin)
Production Advisor: Christine O'Malley
Producer of Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields and Miss Americana
Edit advisor: Jeff Malmberg
Editor Marwencol, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and Saint of Second Chances
Lucky Day
As We Speak, Pas Normal, and Edge of the Earth: Season 2, Episode 4
Supporting Organizations: