Reclaiming Intersex (while Black, genderqueer and feminist in South Africa)

Born intersex in a rural village in South Africa, Nthabiseng’s mother is forced to make radical choices if she is to protect her infant from being taken away to the apartheid hospital where black people often inexplicably die. Nthabiseng tells their story directly to the camera and traces a history that moves from a tiny village of only five houses in rural Limpopo, to their bruising first experience with a doctor in town at the age of thirteen which leaves them feeling that something is terribly wrong with them. The feeling persists till they are at university in Johannesburg and realise that, far from getting the help they had imagined, their story is simply a fascinating research case for the doctors they visit. As they begin to meet intersex activists, they see that the isolation and erasure of intersex people is systemic, and that there are many others like themselves. Nthabiseng the activist emerges and steps into their power. They trace the history of intersex people in South Africa and how the intersection of race, class, culture and religion affects the intersex community in a world that says they do not, cannot and must not exist. Reclaiming Intersex is a revolutionary act. Reclaiming Intersex won an Audience Award at TranScreen Festival 2019, Amsterdam.