Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers ”Every Body” with Julie Cohen
When Academy Award®-nominated, Emmy®-winning filmmaker Julie Cohen (“RBG”, “My Name is Pauli Murray”) came across the NBC News archival footage of sexologist John Money and his patient David Reimer, she knew that this story had legs. But what she couldn’t have anticipated is that this dark chapter in the history of gender identity would lead her toward what ultimately became her groundbreaking new documentary “Every Body” – a major new film about Intersex people.
Making her third visit to Top Docs (but her first without frequent filmmaking partner Betsy West), Julie joins Ken to discuss her celebration of people who identify as the “I” in LGBTQIA+. Who was John Money and why was his work on gender identity so consequential — and harmful? How did she connect with the three film’s main participants, River Gallo, Alicia Roth Weigel and Sean Saifa Wall, and why did she choose to center the film around their stories? And in what ways are these three activists now leading the fight against unnecessary surgeries? With its focus on Intersex people and their long overdue fight for justice, “Every Body” is a film that “everybody” can and should embrace.
Released by Focus Features, “Every Body” is now in theaters everywhere.
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