Trade Secret follows transgender director Emmett Aldred as he embarks on a journey to uncover the lost history of the ‘hormone trades’ of the 1980s—an underground network that provided trans people with life-saving access to hormones in an era of medical secrecy. But as Emmett searches for records that don’t exist, the investigation becomes something more: what does it mean when history erases something that was undeniably real? Without archives, Emmett turns to conversations, oral histories, and passed-down knowledge. Yet these accounts don’t always align, revealing contradictions, gaps, and forgotten details. Trade Secret becomes a meditation on how we make sense of the past when there are no official records, and what that absence reveals about the nature of history itself. The film challenges the idea that history is built on truth, exposing it instead as a construct shaped by power, hierarchy, and exclusion. For those whose lives have been ignored or erased, history does not exist in documents—it lives in memories, stories, and the fight to be remembered.
EMMETT ALDRED (he/him, trans-masc) is a moving image maker with over ten years of experience across the local professional industry and within the independent filmmaking scene of Naarm (Melbourne). Emmett has produced and directed music videos, fashion films, and shorts that have been screened internationally. In time, his work received support from VicScreen, Screen Australia and the National Broadcaster. Currently, he holds a position at the University of Melbourne’s School of Film and Television as a film educator, subject coordinator and researcher.
