Phoebe Hart

Hart describes how she was told she would never menstruate nor have children, but the reasons were not discussed and the topic was taboo. When Hart was 17 years of age, her mother told her the family secret, that Hart had testes in her abdomen. Hart was pressured into a gonadectomy (sterilization), and in the documentary she faces the traumatic emotional scars from that operation and the secrecy associated with it. == Career ==

Hart completed her film studies at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in 1995. She has been involved in the children's programme Totally Wild, Network Ten's documentary unit, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Race Around the World and Fly TV. In 2009, Hart was awarded her doctorate from QUT, of which Orchids was a central element of her doctoral studies. Hart is also a former president of the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia. == Selected bibliography ==

Film • Hart co-directed a documentary series called Downunder Grads on the condition of Australian higher education for the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), screened in March 2008. is an auto-biographical 2010 documentary about one woman's struggle to understand her own intersex condition while interviewing other intersex people on a road trip of self-discovery around Australia. Director Phoebe Hart used digital cameras and a small crew including her sister, Bonnie Hart. The film won the ATOM Award for Best Documentary General. • Hart also directed and co-wrote the Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary Roller Derby Dolls about a group of women who play in roller derby. Peer-reviewed journals • • Books and book chapters • "Making orchids – Gardening an intersex experience on videotape [In German - Orchideen Züchten. Eine inter Erfahrung auf Film]", a contribution to the book Inter: Erfahrungen intergeschlechtlicher Menschen in der Welt der zwei Geschlechter, edited by Elisa Barth, in 2013. Other notable contributors include Mauro Cabral, Sally Gross, and Del LaGrace Volcano. • "All of Us", a resource for schools produced by the Safe Schools Coalition Australia. Hart appears in a video and in a teachers' Unit Guide. Editorial works • • == Recognition ==

Hart has received multiple awards and academic honours for the documentary Orchids, My Intersex Adventure and also academic commendation for a related thesis entitled "Orchids: Intersex and Identity in Documentary". She is a Robson Fellow of the Ormond College, University of Melbourne. == Personal life ==

Hart and her husband desired to start a family, and adopted a child. Hart's infertility and the stress of the adoption process strained their marriage. ==See also==