Subversives: Short Films about Intersex Life

While recent years have seen the experiences of queer and trans people emerge as major concerns both in academic discourse and in public life, the question of how intersex people navigate their everyday lives remains little discussed and poorly understood. The Carsey-Wolf Center is delighted to host a screening of two short films focused on intersex lives: Aubree Bernier-Clarke’s A Normal Girl (2019) and River Gallo’s Ponyboi (2019). Subverting mainstream assumptions about intersex people, A Normal Girl documents the remarkable journey of the activist Pidgeon Pagonis in their quest for medical nonconformity and bodily self-determination. A poignant fiction short, Ponyboi centers on the experience of a young intersex sex worker struggling to navigate the terrains of intimacy, identity and survival.

A Normal Girl director Aubree Bernier-Clarke, activist/producer Pidgeon Pagonis, and Ponyboi director/writer/actor River Gallo will join moderator Xiuhe Zhang (Film and Media Studies, UCSB) for a virtual discussion of these two timely and compelling films.