Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Toronto’s Spring Film Festival continues with ICFF, the Italian Contemporary Film Fest, once again showing movies out of doors in the Distillery District. The seats are huge and comfortable, complete with large puffy earphones, and there’s a great selection of movies to watch, starting Tuesday with Freaks Out, a fantasy  about a circus in Rome in the midst of WWII. The festival continues through July 22. 

But this weekend, there’s another big event in this city, the Pride Parade. So, in honour of that, I’m looking at two new movies, a drama and a doc, that fall into the alphabet soup of  2SLGBTQQI+, specifically in the L and the I categories, meaning Lesbian and Intersex. There’s a gym teacher facing trouble in Thatcher’s England, and three Americans coming out as Intersex.

Every Body

Dir: Julie Cohen (RBG)

What is meant by intersex? And why is it kept a secret? And what medical practices and procedures and popular beliefs should be challenged? Intersex refers to people who don’t fall neatly into our typical male/female definitions of sexual anatomy, reproduction and genetics. But it’s not just one thing, it’s many things; there are over 40 different types of people who fall under that definition. And until recently, it was relegated to the shadows and almost never mentioned in public. This is changing.

This new documentary looks at three intersex Americans and what they’re doing to give people like themselves a public face.  Alicia Roth Weigel is a political consultant in Austin, Texas who rose to fame when she testified before state hearings on a so-called Bathroom Bill, intended to prevent trans people from using public washrooms that don’t match their “biological sex”. The thing is, although Alicia presents physically as a woman since birth, her chromosomes are XY — according to this bill she is “biologically” male, and thus should be barred from using women’s washrooms. River Gallo, a stage actor and  screenwriter from New Jersey, was born without male gonads but brought up by their Salvadoran parents as a boy. And as a teenager doctors surgically implanted prosthetic testicles so they could feel  more “male”. Now River presents as a woman but with a notably deep voice. They’re fighting to stop doctors from performing unnecessary cosmetic surgery on kids with atypical genitals. Sean Saifa Wall is a PhD student and intersex advocate originally from the Bronx who was raised as a girl. He was born with testicles inside his body, but doctors castrated him at puberty, saying they could lead to cancer. He ties his struggle for intersex rights with his equally intrinsic identity as a black man.

The documentary first follows all three subjects as they tell their stories, and then talks to them as a group. They are shown the notorious case of David Reimer. Born as a twin boy in Winnipeg, David’s penis was badly damaged in a botched hospital circumcision. Under the guidance of Dr John Money at Johns Hopkins University, he was raised as a girl. Money theorized any child’s gender is fluid until the age of two, and used him as a celebrated case study that proves his theory. But in fact, it didn’t work, and as a child he continued to strongly resist the gender and new name imposed on him, and upon reaching puberty he refused to go on female hormones. Though his case is now well-known in Canada — he made his story public as an adult — a generation of doctors were trained using his specific case as the basis of numerous medical decisions. Finally, the movie brings intersex people together as part of a movement, one that is little known but quickly growing.

Every Body is the first documentary I’ve seen that turns to intersex people for their information, rather than using them as objects to be examined or as research subjects. It shows you a group of people more common than you think — up to 1.7% of the population share intersex traits —  and what should be done, politically, medically, and socially, to better recognize their rights. 

Every Body has fascinating stories — a real eye-opener.

Blue Jean

Wri/Dir: Georgia Oakley

It’s 1988 in Newcastle, England. Jean (Rosy McEwen) is a Phys Ed teacher at a state school. She’s pretty and athletic with bleached blonde hair in a pixie cut.  By day, she coaches the girls’ netball team. By night, she plays snooker at a lesbian bar. She loves spending time with her girlfriend Viv (Kerrie Hayes), who is buxom and butch with a buzz cut. But what she doesn’t want is for the two sides of her life to overlap. Boundaries are crucial. Especially since Thatcher’s government is introducing harsh anti-gay laws; Section 28 would prohibit the “promotion of homosexuality”.

Though broadly sweeping in its scope, the new measures seem aimed particularly at state schools. So Jean keeps her private life completely private. Boundaries! Then there’s her family life to make things even more complicated. Jean is divorced and wants nothing to do with her ex-husband. But when her sister suddenly appears with her  five-year-old nephew when their mom has a stroke, the privacy of her relationship with Viv is also called into question.

Meanwhile, there’s a new girl in her class. Lois (Lucy Halliday) is confident and outspoken with tousled brown hair. Jean likes her and encourages her to join the netball team. And Lois seems to have a bit of crush on her favourite gym teacher. But she has to deal with Siobhan a ginger rival on the team, who is loathe to lose her status as top player, and is prone to starting fights. As a teacher Jean knows how to defuse student problems — she does it on a daily basis. But everything starts to fall apart when she spots Lois playing snooker at her lesbian bar. If Lois comes out at school, and is somehow associated with Jean, her career would be finished. What is a woman  to do?

Blue Jean is an intimate drama about the problems facing a young lesbian teacher in Thatcher’s repressive England. It’s moving and romantic with a rising tension permeating the story. Radio and TV reports in the background about Thatcher’s Section 28 along with period music, provide a constant thread that holds the narrative together. And her mundane work life is presented in opposition to the sex, music and spectacle of her nightlife. This may be writer/director Georgia Oakley’s first film, but she manages to bring together great acting and a compelling story without ever resorting to treacle.

I liked this one a lot. 

Blue Jean is now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and Every Body opens on July 30th in Toronto; check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.