Every Body

Julie Cohen's 2023 documentary follows three people born intersex: River Gallo, Alicia Roth Weigel and Sean Saifa Wall. All three were operated on as children without their consent and advised to conceal their bodies; the documentary investigates how that medical practice became standard. Its most shattering section is the archive of a case that underpinned medical teaching for fifty years: the study thought to prove that gender could be constructed through learning collapsed, and yet the practice continued. The tone of the three narrators is explanatory and at times funny rather than angry. Its limit is that the voices of doctors who disagree are almost entirely absent. Who it's for: viewers interested in documentaries on medical ethics and bodily autonomy. Who it's not for: anyone avoiding accounts of surgery performed on children, or wanting a structure that hears both sides.