{{short description| Australian filmmaker and intersex rights activist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Phoebe Hart | image = <!-- just the filename, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing brackets --> | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = Queensland, Australia | death_date = | death_place = | education = | other_names = | occupation = Filmmaker and lecturer | known_for = Filmmaker | television = | website = {{URL|www.hartflicker.com}} }} '''Phoebe Hart''' is an Australian filmmaker, lecturer and intersex rights activist, born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. Hart lectures in film, television and digital media at the Queensland University of Technology,<ref name="qut" /> and is principal of Hartflicker, a video and film production company.<ref name="autobio"/> 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 a gonadectomy (sterilization), and in the documentary she faces the traumatic emotional scars from that operation and the secrecy associated with it.<ref name="autobio" /><ref name="synopsis" /> During the shooting of her auto-biography, her parents initially refused to be filmed.<ref name="synopsis">{{cite web | work = Orchids, My Intersex Adventure | url = http://www.orchids-themovie.com/synopsis.html | title = Film Synopsis | date = 3 October 2010 | access-date = 26 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="tedx">{{cite web | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-E8aCF1krE | title = Phoebe Hart | work = TEDx| date = 24 March 2012 }}</ref>
== Career == Hart completed her film studies at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 1995.<ref name="govt">{{cite web | work = Queensland Government, Office for Women | url = http://www.women.qld.gov.au/events/ideas/#phoebe-hart | title = Government biography of Phoebe Hart | date = 14 April 2009 | access-date = 26 October 2010 | archive-date = 30 March 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110330023336/https://www.women.qld.gov.au/events/ideas/#phoebe-hart | url-status = dead }}</ref> 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 QUT, of which ''Orchids'' was a central element of her doctoral studies.<ref name ="govt" /> 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.<ref name="synopsis" /> She describes the work as a means of helping young intersex people to come to terms with their bodies:<ref>{{Cite news| last = Hart| first = Phoebe| title = My intersex body: more than an object of fascination or repulsion to be 'fixed'| work = The Independent| date = 2015-10-07| url = https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/my-intersex-body-more-than-an-object-of-fascination-or-repulsion-to-be-fixed-a6681631.html}}</ref>
{{blockquote|One of the goals I had in telling my own story in a documentary and {{sic|public|ally}} 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.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://aissga.org.au | title = What's new with the AISSG Australia? | work = Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia}}</ref>
== Selected bibliography == ===Film=== * Hart co-directed a documentary series called ''Downunder Grads'' on the condition of Australian higher education for the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), screened in March 2008.<ref name="govt" /> * ''Orchids, My Intersex Adventure''<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.orchids-themovie.com/ | title = "Orchids, My Intersex Adventure" | date = 3 October 2010 | access-date = 26 October 2010}}</ref> is an auto-biographical<ref name="autobio">{{cite web | work = ATOM Awards | url = http://www.firsthandfilms.com/index.php?film=1000334 | title = First Hand Films "Interview with Phoebe Hart" | location = Melbourne, Australia | access-date = 26 October 2010}}</ref> 2010 documentary about one woman's struggle to understand her own intersex condition while interviewing other intersex people on a road trip of self-discovery around Australia. Director Phoebe Hart used digital cameras and a small crew including her sister, Bonnie Hart. The film won the ATOM Award for Best Documentary General.<ref name="best">{{cite web | title = ATOM Award, Winners, 2010 | url = http://www.atomawards.org/atomwinners2010 | access-date = 25 October 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101026091048/http://www.atomawards.org/atomwinners2010 | archive-date = 26 October 2010 | url-status = dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.mcri.edu.au/news/2013/october/researchers-explain-the-science-of-sex/ | title = Researchers explain the science of sex | work = Murdoch Children's Research Institute | date = 17 October 2013 | access-date = 30 December 2013 | archive-date = 30 March 2022 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220330040539/https://www.mcri.edu.au/news/2013/october/researchers-explain-the-science-of-sex | url-status = dead }}</ref> * Hart also directed and co-wrote the Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary ''Roller Derby Dolls'' about a group of women who play in roller derby.<ref name="govt" /> ''Roller Derby Dolls'' screened in a prime-time slot, 9 September 2008.<ref>{{cite web | publisher = Australian Broadcasting Corporation | title = Roller Derby Dolls, Documentary Telly Guide Synopsis | url = http://www.filmaustralia.com.au/rollerderbydolls/ | date = 1 September 2009 | access-date = 25 October 2010 | archive-date = 20 July 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080720145703/http://www.filmaustralia.com.au/rollerderbydolls/ | url-status = dead }}</ref>
===Peer-reviewed journals=== * {{Cite journal| doi = 10.1386/sdf.7.1.79_1| issn = 1750-3280 | volume = 7| issue = 1| pages = 79–91| last = Hart| first = Phoebe| title = Orchids, intersex and the auto/biographical project| journal = Studies in Documentary Film| access-date = 2016-08-27| date = March 2013 | s2cid = 151625176 | url = http://openurl.ingenta.com/content/xref?genre=article&issn=1750-3280&volume=7&issue=1&spage=79| url-access = subscription}} * {{Cite journal| doi = 10.1386/josc.7.2.207_1| issn = 1759-7137 | volume = 7| issue = 2| pages = 207–223| last = Hart| first = Phoebe| title = Writing characters with intersex variations for television| journal = Journal of Screenwriting| access-date = 2016-08-27| date = June 2016| s2cid = 192280795 | url = http://openurl.ingenta.com/content/xref?genre=article&issn=1759-7137&volume=7&issue=2&spage=207| url-access = subscription}}
===Books and book chapters=== * "Making orchids – Gardening an intersex experience on videotape [In German - Orchideen Züchten. Eine inter Erfahrung auf Film]", a contribution to the book ''Inter: Erfahrungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen in der Welt der zwei Geschlechter'', edited by Elisa Barth, in 2013. Other notable contributors include Mauro Cabral, Sally Gross, and Del LaGrace Volcano.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Barth |editor1-first=Elisa |date=2013 |title=Inter: Erfahrungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen in der Welt der zwei Geschlechter |language=de |location=Berlin |publisher=NoNo Verlag |isbn=978-3-942471-03-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://eprints.qut.edu.au/66811/ |title=Making orchids – Gardening an intersex experience on videotape [In German - Orchideen Züchten. Eine inter Erfahrung auf Film] |last1=Hart |first1=Phoebe |date=9 December 2014 |publisher=Queensland University of Technology |isbn=9783942471039 |access-date=2014-12-30 }} </ref> * "All of Us", a resource for schools produced by the Safe Schools Coalition Australia. Hart appears in a video<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwdhHMTODZA&index=5&list=PLjU-Qxxp-YxpXZqRCmT7h2tytwcqzVucI Phoebe's Story- All Of Us (YouTube)]</ref> and in a teachers' Unit Guide.<ref>{{Citation| last = Safe Schools Coalition Australia| title = All of Us: Unit Guide| date = 2015| url = http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/all-of-us#download-resources| access-date = 10 February 2016| archive-date = 27 April 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160427235030/http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org.au/all-of-us#download-resources| url-status = dead}}</ref>
===Editorial works=== * {{Cite news| last = Hart| first = Phoebe| title = My intersex body: more than an object of fascination or repulsion to be 'fixed'| work = The Independent | date = 7 October 2015 | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/my-intersex-body-more-than-an-object-of-fascination-or-repulsion-to-be-fixed-a6681631.html}} * {{Citation| last = Hart| first = Phoebe| title = Intersex and disclosure: Into the light| date = October 2015 | url = http://archermagazine.com.au/2015/10/intersex-and-disclosure-into-the-light/ | work = Archer Magazine}}
== 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.<ref name="qut">{{cite web |url=http://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/hartp/ |title=Dr Phoebe Hart : Awards and recognition |last1=Queensland University of Technology |author-link=Queensland University of Technology |publisher=Queensland University of Technology |access-date=2014-12-30 }}</ref>
== 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.<ref name="autobio" />
==See also== * List of female film and television directors * List of LGBT-related films directed by women
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.hartflicker.com Hartflicker website] * {{IMDb name|nm4148357}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Phoebe}} Category:Living people Category:Intersex women Category:Intersex rights activists Category:Australian filmmakers Category:Intersex rights in Australia Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Intersex academics Category:Intersex writers Category:Australian intersex people Category:Australian lecturers