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Really Happy Someday

“It's my first international festival that I've been able to attend... Anyone I tell the film has gotten into this festival, they're like, ‘Oh my God, I love BFI Flare!” said J Stevens when we met earlier this month, along with their co-writer and star, Breton Lalama. Both were excited, looking forward to screening Really Happy Someday to an international audience.

The film tells the story of a trans man, Z, who has reached a critical point in his career as a singer but, because he’s taking testosterone, has to deal with his voice breaking. Feeling as if everything he’s worked for is over, he embarks on a journey to regain control of his voice and, in the process, transforms his life, discovering new aspects of his personal identity. I begin the conversation by explaining that it was particularly moving for me because I know a trans man who.

Puberty is never easy. Whilst girls struggle with menstruation and the impact of breast growth on the way the world sees them, for boys the most difficult part is often the breaking of the voice, which can make it difficult to speak in some cases and can take months to become complete. For trans boys, of course, this process tends to take place later in life. In adolescence there is at least the comfort of having one’s peers go through it at the same time. It’s a lonely thing to navigate in adulthood, and difficult in the extreme if one happens to have built up a career as a professional singer.

J Stevens’ indie drama, which screened as part of BFI Flare 2025, opens in a waiting room where assorted people in their twenties and thirties are sitting around looking nervous. Z (Breton Lalama) may have been there for an.

J Stevens’ “Really Happy Someday” is a deeply moving, emotionally nuanced reckoning with transition. Breton Lalama plays a musical theatre performer who has to contend with and accept the churn of transformation, everything that comes with the T-shot. We journey with him as he grows into confidence and peace in his shifting voice, while Stevens’ gaze remains graceful and quietly understanding at every step of the way.

Ahead of the film’s international premiere at BFI Flare 2025, HighOnFilms’ Debanjan Dhar sat down with J to discuss its sudden inception, creating safe spaces for gender-diverse storytellers and more.

Debanjan: The film feels so intimately observed it almost feels like docu-fiction. You shot it over the course of a year. Tell me about the first draft you and Breton wrote together, and how his journey with his voice, his body fused into it, what beats of the narrative you had more...

J Stevens’s drama “Really Happy Someday” is one of the many titles in search of distribution at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Premiering Sunday night, the film stars Breton Lalama, Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah, Xavier Lopez and Ali Garrison.

The captivating story centers around Z (Lalama), before his transition, as a rising musical theater star struggling with his gender identity. One year into taking testosterone, he has finally started to feel at home in his body but has lost all control of his voice. At the same time, Z’s long-term partner, Danielle (Roberts-Abdullah), feels she’s lost the person she fell in love with. Unable to book work with his changing voice, Z starts bartending, where his new boss, Santi (Lopez), emboldens him to fight for himself and his dreams. Z starts working with a singing instructor, Shelly (Garrison), to learn how to use his new voice, and maybe even trust himself.