Phoebe Hart

Phoebe Hart
Born Queensland, Australia
Nationality Australian
Occupation Filmmaker and lecturer
Known for Filmmaker
Website www.hartflicker.com

Phoebe Hart is a film maker and intersex rights activist, born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. Hart is a lecturer in film, television and digital media at the Queensland University of Technology,[1] and principal of Hartflicker, a video and film production company.[2] She is known particularly for her autobiographical road trip movie, Orchids, My Intersex Adventure.

Early life

Hart describes how she was told she would never menstruate nor have children, but the reasons were not discussed and the topic was taboo. When Hart was 17 years of age, her mother told her the family secret, that Hart had testes in her abdomen. Hart was pressured into an invasive surgery to remove her undescended testes, and in the documentary she faces the traumatic emotional scars from that operation and the secrecy associated with it.[3][2] During the shooting of her auto-biography, her parents initially refused to be filmed.[3][4]

Career

Hart completed her film studies at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 1995.[5] She has been involved in the children’s programme Totally Wild, Network Ten’s documentary unit, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Race Around the World and Fly TV.

In 2009, Hart was awarded her doctorate from Queensland University of Technology, of which Orchids was a central element of her doctoral studies.[5] This documentary took six years for the principal documenters (sisters Phoebe and Bonnie Hart) to film, using a variety of cameras including semi-professional digital cameras, domestic VHS camcorders, and Super 8.[3] She describes the work as a means of helping young intersex people to come to terms with their bodies:[6]

One of the goals I had in telling my own story in a documentary and publically [sic] revealing me as intersex to a global audience was to change minds and show how our lives are not so unlike anyone else. In particular, I wanted to create a positive frame for young people with intersex variations, who I hoped would not have to go through what I experienced. I had to hide who I was from others, and was constantly terrified of being excluded for the monster and freak I had come to believe I was.

Hart is also a former president of the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia.[7]

Works

Selected published works include:

Recognition

Hart has received multiple awards and academic honours for the documentary Orchids, My Intersex Adventure and also academic commendation for a related thesis entitled "Orchids: Intersex and Identity in Documentary". She is a Robson Fellow of the Ormond College, University of Melbourne.[1]

Personal life

Hart and her husband desired to start a family, and adopted a child. Hart's infertility and the stress of the adoption process strained their marriage.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Queensland University of Technology. "Dr Phoebe Hart : Awards and recognition". Queensland University of Technology. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
  2. 1 2 3 4 ATOM Award description "First Hand Films", Interview with Phoebe Hart, Melbourne, Australia. Retrieved on 26 October 2010
  3. 1 2 3
    • Orchids, My Intersex Adventure -Synopsis "Film Synopsis", 3 October 2010. Retrieved on 26 October 2010
  4. Phoebe Hart, TEDx
  5. 1 2 3 4 Queensland Government, Office for Women "Government biography of Phoebe Hart", 14 April 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2010
  6. Hart, Phoebe (2015-10-07). "My intersex body: more than an object of fascination or repulsion to be ‘fixed’". The Independent.
  7. What's new with the AISSG Australia?, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia.
  8. Hart, Phoebe "Orchids, My Intersex Adventure", 3 October 2010. Retrieved on 26 October 2010
  9. Researchers explain the science of sex, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, 17 October 2013.
  10. Australia Broadcasting Company's Roller Derby Dolls, Documentary "Telly Guide Synopsis", 1 September 2009, Retrieved on 25 October 2010
  11. Barth, Elisa, ed. (2013). Inter: Erfahrungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen in der Welt der zwei Geschlechter (in German). Berlin: NoNo Verlag. ISBN 978-3-942471-03-9.
  12. Hart, Phoebe (9 December 2014). "Making orchids – Gardening an intersex experience on videotape [In German - Orchideen Züchten. Eine inter Erfahrung auf Film]". Queensland University of Technology. Retrieved 2014-12-30.
  13. Phoebe's Story- All Of Us (YouTube)
  14. Safe Schools Coalition Australia (2015), All Of Us: Unit Guide

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, February 16, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.