Exploring the lives of three intersex activists, this new documentary is a reminder of the power of owning your story
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY FOCUS FEATURES
Julie Cohen’s new masterpiece documentary begins with a montage of gender reveals. Blue and pink balloons explode on screen. Happy parents scream as canons reveal confetti. Fathers cheer when they see blue, and mothers weep with joy when pink confetti covers their lawns.
But what about the children who don’t fit “neatly” into this blue and pink world?
1.7% of the world’s population is born with an intersex variation, meaning they may have a combination of biologically “male” and “female” characteristics. Julie Cohen’s new film focuses on the stories of three people who were born with intersex variations.
River Gallo, Alicia Roth Weigel and Sean Saifa Wall are all well-established names in the growing intersex human rights movement. As the central stars of Julie’s documentary, we watch as they recount the intrusive medical surgeries and interventions they were subject to as children. Why? Because doctors wanted them to fit into a binary box.
Every Body masterfully explores these stories with humanity and compassion which is often lacking in discussions about intersex people. While other forms of media have often been fixated on the biology of intersex people, Julie Cohen’s new film takes us straight to the human. We see the mental scars that these surgeries have left on the community, and it instils a sense of urgency within its audience that things must change.
Julie Cohen, best known for her Academy-award-nominated documentary RBG (2018), flips between the present and past to tell the story of intersex human rights. She calls back to the case of David Reimer – a boy who was raised as a girl due to medical advice – to highlight the necessity for greater knowledge in medical spaces about the repercussions of intrusive medical interventions at a young age.
The stars of Every Body each provide a nuanced look at the lived experiences of the intersex community. Alicia Roth Weigel – who released her memoir Inverse Cowgirl earlier this year – recounts the shame and secrecy that she was made to feel in her teenage years about having an intersex variation. River Gallo explores the power of acting in representing the intersex community. Sean Saifa Wall shares how he reclaimed his body as his own after years of medical professionals changing it when he was a child and could not consent.
Above all, Every Body is a call to action. It is a reminder that we cannot shrink from these issues. We must give the intersex community a platform to share their stories.
Every Body – In cinemas 15th December
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