New in Distribution: THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE

THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE (Marie Losier, USA/F 2011), which won the Forum Caligari Prize and the Teddy for Best Documentary at the 2011 Berlinale, is an intimate, moving portrait of the life and work of the ground-breaking performance artist and musical pioneer Genesis Breyer P-Orridge – who became famous with Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV – and his other half and collaborator Lady Jaye. You could be mistaken for expecting a film about the history of industrial music, Genesis as the link between the pre- and post-punk eras, and the state of the underground since the 70s. But while the film does indeed cover all this, its story is told from the perspective of a great romantic love. Genesis and Lady Jaye began to have operations in order to become one, a third being they called "Pandrogyn". Influenced like so much in Genesis' work by Brion Gysins and William Burrough's "Cut Ups", it was an attempt to deconstruct two individual identities by creating an invisible third.