''Orchids, My Intersex Adventure'' is an auto-biographicalATOM Award descriptio
"First Hand Films"
''Interview with Phoebe Hart'', Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved 26 October 2010 2010 documentary about one woman's struggle to understand her own

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...

condition while interviewing other intersex people. Director

Phoebe Hart Phoebe Hart is an Australian filmmaker, lecturer and intersex rights activist, born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. Hart lectures in film, television and digital media at the Queensland University of Technology, and is principal of Hartflic ...

used digital cameras and a small crew including her sister, Bonnie Hart, while on a road trip of self-discovery through various areas of Australia, recording some personal stories disclosed to her by the other intersex individuals. This documentary took six years for the principal documenters (sisters Phoebe and Bonnie Hart) to film, using a variety of cameras including semi-professional digital cameras, domestic VHS camcorders, and Super 8.

Synopsis

Phoebe Hart was told she would never menstruate nor have children, but the reasons were not discussed and the topic was taboo. Initially, her parents refused to be filmed at all.*Orchids, My Intersex Adventure -Synopsi
"Film Synopsis"
3 October 2010. Retrieved 26 October 2010 When Hart was 17 years of age, her mother told her the family secret, that Hart had testes in her abdomen. Hart was pressured into an invasive surgery to remove her undescended testes, and in the documentary she faces the traumatic emotional scars from that operation. Her sister, Bonnie Hart, shares the same condition. Hart embarked on a road trip around Australia in an effort to hear the stories of other

people for the purpose of self-reflection. This self-reflection engendered her resilience and emotional healing, but she realised that she cannot escape the pervasive impact her condition had on all her relationships. Hart and her husband James desired to start a family but her infertility and the stress of the adoption process strained their marriage. She began to understand the scope of difficulties her parents faced when they made decisions on her behalf. This turning point in her personal development convinced her parents to be interviewed. Hart was excited but apprehensive, and wondered whether talking openly with her mother would give her the answers she had long sought.

Awards

The film won the

ATOM Award The ATOM Awards are a group of awards offered to Australian and New Zealand "professionals, educators and students", honoring achievements in the making of film, television, multimedia, and from 2007 multi-modal productions. The Awards were esta ...

for Best Documentary General.*ATOM Award, Winners, 2010
"ATOM Award Winners, 2010"
, ''ATOM Awards 2010'', retrieved 25 October 2010. Other awards include:Orchids – My Intersex Adventure
Frauen Film Festival, Germany, 2012 * Australian Directors Guild Award * Best Direction in a Documentary (Stand Alone); Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts Awards * Best Documentary Under 1 Hour; Honolulu Film Festival, Winner * Gold Kahuna Award; Brisbane International Film Festival * Best Documentary;

Chéries-Chéris Chéries-Chéris (Festival du Film Lesbien, Gay, Bi, Trans & ++++ de Paris) is an annual international LGBT film festival held in Paris in October or November. Original titled "Festival of Gays and Lesbians of Paris", it was founded in 1994 by Ya ...

Film Festival, France * Prix Spécial du Jury du Film Documentaire; MujerDoc International Festival of Documentary Cinema on Gender, Spain * Best Short Documentary; Best Documentary at Mix Copenhagen; John Deen Memorial Award at the Spokane International LGBT Film Festival.

References

Notes

External links

* *
Orchids, My Intersex Adventure
at

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from city-wide Women's Li ...

* Phoebe Hart
Orchids: Intersex and Identity in Documentary
PhD thesis, School of Film and Television, Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology, 2009 {{Intersex 2010 films 2010s English-language films Australian documentary films 2010 documentary films Australian LGBT-related films Autobiographical documentary films Documentary films about intersex 2010 LGBT-related films