Last week was Intersex Awareness Day, which marked the anniversary of the first public demonstration by intersex people in North America in 1996, and was created to raise awareness of human rights issues facing intersex people and promote understanding, respect, and inclusion for intersex people.  To celebrate the occasion in Australia the City of Sydney and Queer Screen co-presented a special screening of the acclaimed documentary The Secret of Me, from director Grace Hughes-Hallett (producer of Three Identical Strangers).

The film asks what would you do if you discovered everything your parents had told you was a lie? In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Jim Ambrose, who until he was 20 years old was called Kristi and raised female. When he was born in 1976 with XY chromosomes and had atypical genital, his parents, under the advice of a local doctor, decided to have surgery performed on the infant to create more female-looking organs, and then raised him as a girl without ever telling him the truth. It wasn’t until he was 19 years old that he discovered the truth that he was intersex. Demanding to see his medical records, he was confronted with the devastating truth: as a newborn, doctors convinced his parents to raise him as a girl without his knowledge. Seeking out answers, Jim discovered the burgeoning American intersex rights movement and found community amongst queer activists in San Francisco.

Intertwined with Jim’s journey of discovery is an exploration of an extraordinary and disturbing psychological experiment performed on a pair of twins in the 1960s, the results of which have been used to justify thousands of unnecessary surgical procedures on children around the world. Featuring prominent intersex activists including Bo Laurent and Tiger Devore, this deeply empathetic – and ultimately uplifting – film is both a celebration of the power of finding community, and call to arms in the ongoing fight for bodily autonomy for intersex people everywhere.

The film detailing this enraging medical exposé had its World Premiere at SXSW on 9th March 2025 before visiting Thessaloniki Film Festival and CPH:DOX and 22 other film festivals to date around the world and is currently at Queer Screen. It will be broadcast on UK Channel 4 in 2026, BUT If you want to check out where else wit may be screened, contact the distributors.  DogWolf’s Cleo Veger   at sales@dogwoof.com