Asuncion and Pe (foreground) with the cast and crew of 'What’s the T?'

MANILA, Philippines – Aiming to shed light on the topic of transsexuality are US-based Filipino filmmakers Cecilio Asuncion and Joseph Pe via the documentary film “What’s the T?”

Asuncion deemed the title more than appropriate given their aspiration. "What's the T? is common vernacular in the [transgender] world meaning 'What's the Tale?' or 'What's the Truth?' I felt that this title is befitting because not only do you know what the truth is in the film, you also get to learn about their jargon even just from the title itself," said he in an interview with GMA News.

Featured in the documentary are three transgender women discussing the challenges and misconceptions given to the notion including Cassandra Cass of “The Glamour Girl;” Rakash Armani Singh of “Up and coming Femme Realness,” and Victor Le of “The Scholar.”

Discussing his three stars, Asuncion said, “They are beyond and within the stereotypical male-to-female story that has been told before.”

“This film is not about middle-aged husbands wrangling strained marriages for the sack of identity. It's not about teenagers looking for identity or toddlers embraced by progressive families.  And it's not about loners seeking medical solace.  The ladies of 'What’s the T?' are reality and self-assurance in identity.”

According to Asuncion, the main objective of the film is to show that these people are not “unicorns or fairytale characters.”

“They're as normal as you and me, and the community-at-large. The bigger objective for me is that one day, documentaries regarding transgender women will no longer be made. They will simply be referred to as women," he said.

Pe, on the other hand, said he simply wanted to highlight the women as successful individuals.

Casting for the documentary started August last year in New York City and San Francisco. The actual filming began soon after the pre-production started in December.

Asuncion said that he expects to finish filming by the end of January. He aims to premiere the film during the Scary Cow Film Festival at the historic Castro Theatre in San Francisco on March 3.

"We are hoping to do all the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) film fests and then do the community-at-large short film fests and hopefully get into some Oscar-qualifying film fests as well,” he said.