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S/HE IS STILL HER/E  Alan Rider watches the powerful new Genesis Breyer P-Orridge documentary

S/HE IS STILL HER/E

Alan Rider watches the powerful new Genesis Breyer P-Orridge documentary

by Alan Rider, Contributing Editor
first published: October, 2024

approximate reading time: minutes

Watching this film opens your eyes to how it is possible to live a very different existence, without fear or constraint, and without seeking to harm others in the process

Any film about the life of non-binary/pan-drogenic pioneer, artist, musician, and disruptor Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is bound to be packed with controversy and challenge.  That s/he was a dominant personality and influence on the creation of industrial music is a given, and there have been endless books, videos, collections, and recollections both during their life, and following their death.  What makes ‘S/HE IS STILL HER/E’ different though is that it was Executive Produced by one of their two daughters, Caresse, and also that it was filmed during the final year of their life.  Marketed as documenting that final year, it doesn’t really do that, but Director David Charles Rodrigues (Gay Chorus, Deep South) has instead created a powerfully raw and intimate portrait of a personality who has lived an amazing and unique life, the like of which, few of us could even imagine.

Genesis was undoubtedly a complex character, at times controlling and given to outbursts (although s/he habitually denied any claims to that effect), as most creatives are, yet at the same time was hugely intelligent and reflective and enormously creative and original.  Many in regular society, and especially the media, found that threatening and the art and ideas presented challenging to their conventional morals and power bases.  S/he was simultaneously loved and hated, worshipped and misunderstood, quoted and mis-quoted. S/he could be at times both generous and modest (in one interview s/he professes embarrassment at being feted by the Tate as s/he did not feel particularly special and deserving of such attention) and yet on other occasions s/he could be petty and egotistical (as attested to by the well documented clumsy attempts to photoshop wife Paula out of pictures and delete her credits from Psychic TV album sleeves following their divorce).  Take your pick.  Both are probably true. In every way, Genesis lived out life as a performance, from their earliest beginnings as part of 60’s performance collective ‘The Exploding Galaxy’, though performance art group COUM (which I think stands for ‘Cosmic Organism of the Universe Molecular’', or it could just be slang for semen!), noise terrorists Throbbing Gristle, and quasi-religious pop band PTV and the associated Temple of Psychic Youth, to using and adapting their body as a medium to express a very different way of perceiving identity. That one person could do so much and prevail over multiple setbacks is truly impressive.  In the film s/he says that the lives of artists are very often more compelling than the art itself.  That is partly true here, as the myths, the imagery, the stories, and the performances come across as far more interesting than the musical output.

Genesis P-Orridge brandishing a PTV cross with Sleazy standing behind

The film also features significant contributions from their two daughters, Caress and Genesse, whose description of their unusual childhood, and obvious deep love for their father comes across powerfully, and showcases a caring nature and a disarming normality when bringing them up, although equally obvious is that those around Genesis played a huge part too,  in particular their mother Paula of course, but also the many who baby sat whilst Genesis was focussed on other things. That domesticity is something not covered much in other documentaries. Much of the rest of film is comprised of an interview with Genesis (one of their last) and rare archive footage, both of domestic scenes, and of performances byThrobbing Gristle and Psychic TV, coupled with voice overs and interviews featuring William Burroughs, Brion Gyson, Timothy Leary, Alice Genese (Psychic TV), David J (Bauhaus/Love and Rockets) and PTV band members/associates.  Thankfully, we are spared the usual procession of talking heads that habitually accompany this sort of biographical film, with testimony coming from people close to Genesis who actually knew them, rather than just observers and music journalists.  That serves to make this documentary feel genuinely  quite intimate, if these things can ever be that.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge

Given the film is largely comprised of anecdotes, there isn’t too much I can say without risking spoilers, but there are a couple of examples I will mention.  One is the meeting with William Burroughs, who Genesis wrote to after finding his address in a magazine article, resulting in an invitation to visit him, a meeting of minds, and Burroughs tasking Genesis with “short cutting control”, a mission s/he embraced wholeheartedly.  The other is the decision to re-name from their birth name of Neil Megson to Genesis P-Orridge (‘Genesis’ representing creation), “not because I wanted a funny sounding name, it was because I wanted to control the narrative of my life”, something that persisted right through to the body modification of the latter part of their life with Lady Jaye (Jacqueline Breyer) as the “Pandrogeny Project", literally adopting a cut up approach to both of their bodies to merge identities, pre-dating the current non-binary choices that are now commonplace.  The most painful part of this film is the clear heartbreak s/he feels when love of their life Lady Jaye died suddenly in 2007.  From that point on, you felt that their life was leading up to the point they could re-unite, which they did when Genesis passed away in 2020 aged 70, having performed for the last time in 2018 at London’s Heaven nightclub.

Lady Jaye and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge in bandages facing each other

Watching this film opens your eyes to how it is possible to live a very different existence, without fear or constraint, and without seeking to harm others in the process.  As Genesis said, ultimately “it all comes down to love”, with “a thin line between creativity and jail”.  That the imagery associated with Throbbing Gristle and PTV have crossed over to the extent that I can wear a TG T Shirt in rural Norfolk and it is instantly recognised, shows just how far they have transitioned into our consciousness. 

There is a lot, lot, more I could say on this film, but it is best that you see it for yourself.  Screenings are happening in the UK over the next few weeks and I expect at some point it will get an online release too.

Essential Information.

S/HE IS STILL HER/E screenings:

25th October - LONDON - BFI Southbank NFT1 (Q&A with Director hosted by Pam Hogg)

26th October - DUBLIN - Lighthouse Cinema (Q&A with Director)

2nd November - LONDON – ICA (Q&A with Director & Alice Genese hosted by Dorothy Max Prior)

Booking details here.

Images: Screen grabs from trailer

Alan Rider
Contributing Editor

Alan Rider is a Norfolk based writer and electronic musician from Coventry, who splits his time between excavating his own musical past and feeding his growing band of hedgehogs, usually ending up combining the two. Alan also performs in Dark Electronic act Senestra and manages the indie label Adventures in Reality.


about Alan Rider »»

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