Gendernauts

GENDERNAUTS explores phenomena of gender fluidity at the end of the last millennium in the Bay Area, California. It is a film about cyborgs, people who alter their bodies and minds with new technologies and chemistry, with an emphasis on biological women who use the male sexual hormone testosterone. Max Wolf Valerio, San Francisco's leading gender mixer, who reads from his book, Max, A Man; Jordy Jones with his Net art; Texas Tomboy with his video art; Stafford, who explores new business venues and, together with Jordy Jones, organizes ‘Club Confidential’, the world's leading gender bender event. And there’s Hida, an intersexual woman who happily inhabits the middle ground between male and female; and two extraordinary biological women who support transgender people: sex goddess Annie Sprinkle and ex-centrefold model Tornado, who was Stafford's lover and is the self-proclaimed mother of Texas Tomboy. Excursions are made into the life of the spotted hyena, a very special animal society. The female hyena has an enlarged clitoris that looks like a penis. Her bloodstream carries a large amount of testosterone, especially when she's pregnant. The tour guide for this journey through shifting gender identities is Sandy Stone, also known as the ‘Goddess of Cyberspace’, who is the Director of the ACTLab at the University of Texas at Austin. Director Monika Treut is a member of this year’s Joris Ivens jury.