The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye

Overview

Concrete Playground is proud to present The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye as part of this year's Sydney Underground Film Festival.

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge was already notorious as a performance-artist when he met Lady Jaye and fell in love. Many people feel consumed by their partner, so close to the other that it's like one soul, one mode or even one identity. Genesis felt so close to Lady Jaye that he began gender reassignment surgery: piece by piece making himself look more and more like his partner, until the similarity was uncanny and he began to think of himself as a she. And in this process Marie Losier found them — or was found — and began to document the transformation on video. The resulting doco is The Ballad Of Genesis And Lady Jaye.

Genesis narrates the film, Lady Jaye having died suddenly in 2007. Marie kept shooting footage for two more years. And while documentaries can take imperceptible perspectives or subtle sides, The Ballad is clearly Genesis' point of view. This isn't a film that charts a simple story, but every love story is unique in its way. In The Ballad those differences just become a little bit more obvious.