Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and her wife Lady Jaye were one of the few pandrogynist couples in the world, actually they are sort of the inventor of what is called Pandrogeny. As a (male) singer and musician of the British band Throbbing Gristle as well as the founder of Psychic TV Genesis has always been interested in the transformations of the body and the possibilities these transformations can open up in terms of rethinking gender identity and finding new concepts of what love means. Genesis and Lady Jaye perceived their love as so strong that the both of them were just parts of one shared entity, a “pandrogynist” person called “Breyer P-Orridge”. This is why through several surgeries they started to change their bodies in a way that they would more and more resemble each other. Sadly Lady Jay Breyer P-Orridge died of a heart failure in 2007, but recently several film projects have been released that in different ways deal with the couple’s relationship – one of them is Jake’s Yuzna’s awesome film “Open” that won a special Teddy award at this year’s Berlinale (click here for the Berlinale info sheet), another second one is a documentary called “The Ballade Of Lady Jay” by filmmaker Marie Losier (trailer below) who also shot the brilliant great video to “Have Mercy” by Psychic TV. More about Genesis P-Orridge and the concept of Pandrogeny on her website. Jake Yuzna will soon be part II of the CATCH FIRE interviews series – as soon as I have completely transcripted the interview. I also posted a clip of another documentary about the couple produced by Metropolis Web TV.
UPDATE 03/13/10: Seems like Marie Losier hasn’t finished her film yet. On Genesis’ site she’s letting people know that she’s searching for both and editor and a sound engineer and asks for donations to finish the movie.
