Shot on 16mm, Color, 72 mn. With Genesis P-Orridge, Lady Jaye, Psychic TV...
Produced by Marie Losier
Premiered at the Berlin Film Festival FORUM, in 2011
Press book EN
Dossier de presse FR
An intimate, affecting portrait of the life and work of groundbreaking performance artist and music pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) and his other half and collaborator, Lady Jaye, centered around the daring sexual transformations the pair underwent for their “Pandrogyne” project.
Film Distributed by
EPICENTRE FILMS (Paris-France)
KINO ARSENAL (Berlin-Germany)
ADOPT FILMS (NYC-USA)
P-Orridge is revealed as an innate artist who inflects and illuminates every aspect of existence, high and low, exalted and humble, with a singular sensibility; Losier’s film captures the poignant paradoxes, the ecstasies and burdens, of the transformation of life into art.
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Un magnifique portrait de l’artiste transgenre Genesis P-Orridge.
- Libération
Un mélange émouvant entre fantaisie et onirisme (...) Une love story transgenre où l’amour fait muter les corps.
- Cahiers du Cinéma
GRAND PRIZE - IndieLisboa (Portugal)
TEDDY AWARD - Berlin Film Festival-Forum
CALIGARI AWARD - Berlin Film Festival-Forum
PRIX LOUIS MARCORELLES & PRIX DES BIBLIOTHÈQUES - Cinéma du Réel (France)
AUDIENCE AWARD - Bafici Buenos Aires Film Festival (Argentina)
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - Outfest Film Festival (USA-L.A)
SANFIC-SPECIAL MENTION - International Competition (Chile)
AUDIENCE AWARD - Mention Spéciale - Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (Québec)
“Marie’s technique is very revolutionary. Most documentaries – and I’ve been in a lot of documentaries, I’ve been in Joy Division, Brion Gysin, Burroughs, Derek Jarman documentaries – all kinds of stuff. But they’re all the same: they sit you down and they stick a camera at you and it’s just your head, and you’re just going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah… and it’s very ordinary. There’s nothing very interesting and radical happening. But with Marie there’s animation and she gets you to wear the most ludicrous costumes and do these bizarre things that at the time you’re doing them you’re thinking, what the hell has this got to do with my life? But when it’s all assembled, it’s like Fellini meets documentary. It’s a very new, radical way of making documentaries, and quite honestly, we think that what Marie does and the way she does it will be the template for the future. She is totally unique, very deep with a great sense of joy and emotions below her humor.”
—Genesis Breyer P-Orridge
My story with Genesis P-Orridge begins seven years ago in a typically miraculous New York City coincidence.
Before I had ever met him, I’d seen him perform at a concert at the Knitting Factory, the now legendary club in Tribeca. For me, watching Genesis perform was pure enchantment. His words from the stage hovered somewhere between song and speech, deeply poetic, primitive, at times frightful. It completely hypnotized me. I had never seen anyone like him, because his appearance was that of the raw image one might have of a “rock-n-roll chick,” and yet Genesis was a man. I knew immediately that I had to film this perplexing and powerful figure, perhaps as a way of understanding what I had experienced, but moreover to have proof of the existence of a being I was convinced had arrived from somewhere else! A week later, I was at a gallery opening in SoHo, one of those sardine-can spaces where you can barely walk and hardly breathe. Being relatively small, I got pressed into a corner where I inadvertently stepped on someone’s toes. I turned to apologize and there was Genesis smiling, talking with the Icelandic singer Björk, his gold-capped teeth glittering down over me. We spoke briefly, but in that time I felt something special had passed between us. He asked me about my films and gave me his email address. Whether it was fate or pure clumsiness, this marked the beginning of our artistic collaboration, one that would develop into a close friendship.
- Marie Losier
Ma rencontre avec Genesis
Mon histoire avec Genesis Breyer P-Orridge a commencé il y a sept ans par une coïncidence miraculeuse, typique de New York.
Je l’ai rencontré-e pour la première fois lors d’un concert d’Alan Vega au Knitting Factory. Assister à cette performance de Genesis fut pour moi une révélation. Ses paroles, profondément poétiques, primitives et parfois effrayantes, voltigeaient quelque part entre le chant et la déclamation. Je fus tout de suite hypnotisée. Je n’avais encore jamais vu quelqu’un comme lui/elle. Le lendemain j’étais à l’ouverture d’une galerie à Soho. Il y avait du monde et j’ai marché sur des pieds, je me retourne pour m’excuser, et je vois le visage de Genesis, son sourire brillant de toutes ses dents en or. Nous avons parlé brièvement. Cela a scellé le début de notre collaboration artistique, de notre amitié et ma rencontre avec Lady Jaye. La première fois chez Genesis et Lady Jaye, je me suis retrouvée assise sur une chaise verte en forme de main, ils m’ont observée pendant un moment. Nous avons parlé, il leur a semblé alors évident que je ne connaissais pas leur travail. Comme je ne faisais pas de films dits « commerciaux », Jaye a dit « C’est elle ! ». Ils m’ont dit qu’ils cherchaient depuis longtemps quelqu’un pour faire un film sur leur vie. Une demi-heure plus tard, ils m’invitaient à les suivre en tournée avec Psychic TV3. C’est comme ça que tout a commencé. Je suis partie dans un bus géant avec le groupe de musique et ma Bolex, datant de l’époque du muet et une tonne de pellicules de 3min. A partir de là, j’ai travaillé seule, à la caméra, au son, au montage, pendant 7 ans.
- Marie Losier