ABOUT THE FILM

LOGLINE

Amid the surge in anti-trans legislation that Chase Strangio battles in the courtroom, he must also fight against media bias, exposing how the narratives in the press influence public perception and the fight for transgender rights.

LONG SYNOPSIS

An actively unfolding story of resistance follows an ACLU lawyer and a group of journalists and activists responding to anti-trans backlash in real life communities and workplaces, while revealing mainstream media’s shocking complicity in rolling back hardwon trans civil rights. The story’s central participant is Queens, NY-based ACLU attorney, father, cat lover, Chase Strangio.

HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY follows the full arc of an epic legal battle Chase must strategize and fight—a 2023 Tennessee state law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth (LW. v. Skrmetti)—with a consequential decision expected June 2025. The heat is on Chase, as the first out trans person to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The outcome will determine the future of legal bodily autonomy for contraception, abortion, and reproductive healthcare.

High stakes—democracy, truth, and justice—drive a story that will hinge on SCOTUS’s limitations of constitutional protections against government discrimination on “the basis of sex.” As Project 2025 menaces us all, Chase lucidly illuminates the destructive role of mainstream media’s continuing anti-trans bias.

This irresponsible coverage drives legislation and real life impacts. At one level it means his own child’s NYC school district is infiltrated by anti-trans hate groups. At another it is driving life-threatening bans on access to healthcare, a coordinated attempt to eradicate trans people nationwide.

Rhetorically it is dishonest and distorted as well as public panic-inducing. A supporting ensemble cast of veteran journalists like Gina Chua, Jelani Cobb, and Lydia Polgreen, along with activists like Laverne Cox dismantle the logic and impact of anti-trans disinformation in mainstream media.

Cumulatively, HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY demonstrates that this bias normalizes suspicion of trans lives. It’s a shocking retreat from celebratory coverage of trans visibility back in 2014. Offering incisive informed resistance to a spate of fierce backlash, HEIGHTENED SCRUTINY reveals mainstream media’s complicity in unleashing the American far right’s takeover of democracy and traces the fight against anti-trans legislation all the way to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Director Sam Feder

Producers Amy Scholder, Sam Feder, Paola Mendoza

Executive Producers Laverne Cox, S. Mona Sinha, Ruth Ann & William Harnisch, Lisa Freeman, Sara Hinkle

FESTIVALS
2025: Sundance (World Premiere)

AVAILABLE TERRITORIES
The World

EXHIBITION FORMATS
DCP, Digital Download