Assume Nothing THE FEMALE EYE / Gender is one of the most powerful things we...

[Shana A]

Assume Nothing
THE FEMALE EYE / Gender is one of the most powerful things we think we know about people: Kirsty MacDonald
Andrea Zanin / Toronto / Thursday, March 10, 2011

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Assume_Nothing-9846.aspx

The photograph is of performer Ema Lyon, and it appears on the cover of Assume Nothing, a book of gender-challenging photography published by New Zealand artist Rebecca Swan in 2004. That book inspired filmmaker Kirsty MacDonald to create a documentary of the same name in which the eloquent gender-variant New Zealanders who grace the pages of Swan's book tell their stories. They include intersex activist Mani Bruce Mitchell, Japanese-Samoan fa'afafine art photographer Shigeyuki Kihara and transgender human rights activist Jack Byrne, among others.

Xtra recently chatted with Kirsty MacDonald about the film, which will screen at the Female Eye Film Festival.