Off The Fence Boards Intersex Documentary 'Let Us Be' Ahead of Rio

Off The Fence, the media group behind the Oscar-winning documentary "My Octopus Teacher," has acquired Viviane D'Avilla's debut feature "Let Us Be," a documentary following the lives of intersex individuals across three continents. The film world premiered at Raindance and will screen in its Latin American premiere at the Rio Film Festival. Sales begin at Mipcom this October.

D'Avilla's research into the subject dates back to 2017, when she first explored intersex lives in the short documentary "GOPI." The resulting feature traces the challenges, joys and intimate journeys of people born with bodies outside the physical definitions of male or female, filmed in India, Brazil and the United States.

Mariana Marinho and Marco Abujamra of Dona Rosa Films in Brazil produced the documentary alongside Iz Web of Social Construct. Pioneering intersex activist and author Hida Viloria serves as executive producer with Zak Kilberg of Social Construct.

"The term intersex is still very much unknown or at least misunderstood, and I was blown away by the film's ability to educate and empower those within it," said Loren Baxter, VP of acquisitions and co-productions for Off The Fence. "The characters are warm and easy to relate to; the film exudes positivity and love, and I came away so inspired. The team behind the film has created an intimate and profoundly powerful film, and we expect a lot of interest at Mipcom."

Viloria, who became involved as executive producer, framed the film's significance in global terms. "There's still so much confusion about the intersex community," she said. "I was drawn to this project because of the way its multi-continental focus demonstrates that we're a natural part of the entire global population, not just a modern, Western phenomenon."

The film's subjects include Carolina Iara, who made history as one of the first intersex individuals to hold a parliamentary position in Latin America, and Aanandh Rajappan, an Indian community leader who confronts the stigma and medical violence faced by intersex people in his home country.

D'Avilla said the film deliberately resists existing frameworks. "We wanted to make a film that moves beyond the way intersex bodies have historically been defined by medicine or society, and instead allows people to define themselves with dignity and autonomy," she said. "At its heart, the film asks a very simple question: can we learn to embrace human bodies as they are, rather than forcing them to fit the categories we have created?"

Producer Marinho said the team took "great care to create a film for a broad audience and to present a little-known subject matter in a clear, intimate way, drawing the viewer into the characters' world."

The choice of three distinct countries was deliberate, she added. "The decision to set the film in such distinct countries stemmed from a desire to bring the aesthetics and knowledge of other cultures — as well as different colors and lighting — to the screen. Characters in Brazil, India, and the United States offer a wide-ranging perspective on the theme, finding common ground amidst their differences. We produced a film for the world."

Dona Rosa Films, which Marinho has led for 20 years, ranks among Rio de Janeiro's leading independent documentary production companies. Abujamra, the company's founder, co-wrote "Animal Race" by Fernando Meirelles, Rodrigo Pesavento and Ernesto Solis, which premiered at SXSW and became the most-watched non-English-language film worldwide on Prime Video in its opening week.

Brazilian public money underwrote the project: "Let Us Be" was produced and completed with funds managed by the National Film Agency Ancine, with additional financing from the FSA (Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual), BRDE and RioFilme.

With Off The Fence launching sales at Mipcom in October, a distributor with a proven Academy Awards track record will now test whether a deeply personal, three-continent documentary about intersex lives can find a global audience.