Seen at...
No Box for me. An intersex story
Original Title
Ni d'Ève, ni d'Adam. Une histoire intersexe.- Director: Floriane Devigne
CGiii Comment
Quite possibly...the most intelligent and moving film about being born intersex.
Imagine...you have absolutely no choice as to the direction of your life...and, after that choice has been made [irreversibly, on your behalf], your life becomes a hushed secret, a secret that is kept from you and everyone around you...it is unimaginable.
Doctors and surgeons have made and are still making these choices. Parents, call them [what you will] naive, gullible, misinformed, uninformed, stuck in the binary...have and are still allowing the medical profession to dictate their [preferable] steadfast [binary] road. This binary has caused and is still causing untold suffering...until now.
Floriane Devigne's film shines a light...the bravest of voices speak out...and, a surgeon apologises. Grappling with your sexuality is hard enough. Wrestling with your gender is monumental...not knowing your gender must be catastrophic...these women have taken their secret and shared it...
This film is an education and a warning...no-one should be allowed to make life-changing decisions for anyone...your body, your choice. Accept that [all] binaries are mere fictional constructions...wrought from narrow minds and religious hypocrisies.
When these mindsets are abolished, just as the flat earth was...then, we will all be truly enlightened, enjoying life on the spectrum. Because...that's what life is a colourful, glorious spectrum. Enjoy.
Thank you for this film...both emboldening and enlightening.
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
M is 27 years old and is neither a girl nor a boy. For traditional science M is a freak but there are many others like they. People still think of intersex people as hermaphrodites lifted straight from mythology or as an insult to nature which makes the process of understanding what is going on in one’s body even more difficult. Eventually M gets in contact with Deborah who introduces her to a completely new perception of themself and their body. The journey, though, towards acceptance and discovery is long and complex. With the help of Pidgeon, an American intersex blogger that posts their work on Youtube and advocates the rights and dignity of people like M and many others, a new awareness begins to shape their existence. Thus, escaping the dimension of medical pathology and finally enter another one made of freedom and respect, where hope becomes finally possible. A film on how to re-imagine established identities while altogether questioning the stifling notions of binary, patriarchal and heterosexual gender politics. Too cute to be binary, indeed.
Giona A. Nazzaro