“Every Body,” a riveting, uplifting look at the unfairly maligned and often misrepresented intersex community, serves up a darkly comic prologue: a series of over-the-top, pyrotechnic gender-reveal celebrations that announce an upcoming baby as either a boy or girl.
But what happens when a baby’s characteristics don’t conform neatly into that binary choice? That’s our springboard into meeting three extraordinary intersex people who serve as the foundation of Julie Cohen’s slyly ambitious documentary.
In a compact 92 minutes, Cohen (director of the Oscar-nominated “RBG” and the equally formidable “My Name Is Pauli Murray”) not only provides a fresh, easy-to-digest history of the intersex movement, but also in-depth, emotional profiles of intersex activists, each with a commanding screen presence.
Though the tone of her film is ultimately positive, Cohen doesn’t back away from the harrowing journeys of her protagonists — political activist Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), filmmaker River Gallo (they/them) and researcher Sean Safia Wall (he/him) — as they painfully recount experiences with doctors who seemed to consider them freakish science projects, not human beings.
“Every Body”:Documentary. Directed by Julie Cohen. Rated R. 92 minutes. Playing at Bay Area theaters.
Cohen also reconstructs the tragic story of David Reimer, who unwittingly served as an experimental gender subject for doctors during the 1960s. After David’s botched circumcision as a baby, physicians performed what would turn out to be a disastrous sex reassignment procedure for the boy, based on the discredited premise that gender identity is mainly learned.
Beyond expanding awareness of the intersex community — the documentary estimates that 1.7% of the planet’s people inherited intersex traits — “Every Body” is a clarion call for parents and doctors to hold off on surgery until intersex individuals are old enough to participate in the process.
不会丢失这是右翼的痛苦的讽刺lawmakers are increasingly banning surgery for trans people who desperately want it, and at the same time forcing surgery on intersex people who desperately don’t want it, or who aren’t old enough to weigh in. This twisted dynamic in the culture wars makes “Every Body” especially timely, and the stories of these intersex heroes are a vivid reminder to everyone that gender identity is not so unambiguous.
In many respects, Cohen’s film serves as an entertaining Intersex 101 course for those not as familiar with the movement. But even those more acquainted with this community can enjoy the proceedings and find much to admire about the filmmaking. That’s because Cohen clearly loves her subjects, and her enthusiasm and joy for their very being is evident, epitomized during a fabulous curtain call in the final frames.
With a zippy soundtrack and breezy editing style, “Every Body” comes off as an up-to-date declaration that being intersex is something to be celebrated. In the end, we can’t help but share in the enthusiasm.
David Lewis is a freelance writer.