Every Body

Director Julie Cohen is finally on her own. Having previously co-directed films such as RBG, Julia, and Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down with Betsy West, she takes the solo route with Every Body – a film about the lives of intersex individuals.

The documentary focuses on the testimonies of three people, all of whom have different experiences, pronouns, and racial backgrounds. Sean Saifa Wall (he/him) is an activist and scholar, and co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project. River Gallo (they/them) is an award-winning filmmaker whose journey has led them to Hollywood to pursue a life in arts. Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), who resides in Austin, is a political advocate who fights for intersex representation in addition to fighting against anti-trans laws in Texas. Every Body dives into the lives of these three beautiful people, whose experiences growing up, while unalike, are oftentimes similar in intimate ways, as each of these individuals was given sexual reassignment surgery before they could formulate their own thoughts and consent.

It’s important that Cohen gives the space for each of her subjects to relay their stories. At times it’s an emotional wallop, watching them all open up to the camera about their experiences growing up as intersex and many of the obstacles they were forced to overcome. There’s a clear through line from these testimonies that’s incredibly devastating: Intersex individuals and their families are too often told by medical professionals that their birth – their very existence – is an abnormality and that parents should treat it as such. This way of thinking is a disservice to people like Saifa, River, and Alicia, whose lives are valid, but from a young age they were never treated as such. It further proves that there’s so much more to fight for when it comes to LGBTQIA+ rights and that the work for basic human rights is never-ending.

Every Body does, to its detriment, spend a bit too much time on John Money, a psychologist and professor at John Hopkins University whose grave errors with his research on sex and gender in regard to intersex studies have been scrutinized. While it’s important to highlight how Money’s treatment of David Reimer (who was subjected to gender reassignment surgery after a botched circumcision) affects intersex rights to this day, it’s interesting that Cohen and editor Kelly Kendrick chose to end the documentary with a clip from Reimer’s interview, and therefore from his perspective. However, he wasn’t even an intersex individual, but rather a victim of a tragic medical accident. Something about the placement is off, and its inclusion as the conclusion of the film relays too much importance on Money over Alicia’s, River’s, and Saifa’s stories.

Cohen’s films are always relevant, but often they are too broad for their own good. She presents big personalities and wraps them up in a digestible fashion, which will work for the average documentary viewer. Yet for those who admire and love the form, her work often feels too safe. As an introductory lesson to what it means to be intersex, Every Body serves its purpose well enough, but there’s no bite to the storytelling, no immediate call to action. Cohen’s films are sweet – a pleasant packaging paired with soft guitar covers of pop tunes that are designed for a wider audience to learn about politically charged topics. Every Body’s existence is what matters at the end of the day, though, and hopefully it encourages the creation of more films like it.