S/He Is Still Her/e – The Official Genesis P-Orridge Documentary

David Charles Rodrigues

Doc’n Roll Films
20th June 2025

In S/He is Still Her/e, Genesis P-Orridge sits interviewed shirtless for a portrait, their torso inked with memories of their past, with a vulnerability only seen in someone who knows they are near death. Director David Charles Rodrigues has given himself the unenviable task of retelling this body of memories belonging to the Manchester-born artist and musician. Through interviews in the final year of P-Orridge’s life, along with a montage of collaged, fast-paced scenes, the viewer is exposed to what it means to be ultimately committed and consumed by a desire to negate the body, forever transforming and transcending the realms of identity. Whether this be regarding gender, sexuality, or nature of character, P-Orridge continually challenges these perceptions through their lifelong prolific career. Their belief in cosmosis, “unconditional love that is accessed through loving boundlessly, beyond gender and even the limitations of being alive,” underpins and envelopes their work.

Contrasting the media’s portrayal of P-Orridge, Rodrigues focuses throughout the documentary on the softness of their character and love for their family despite their transgressive art and nonconformist way of life. However, Rodrigues takes this to the extreme; this hagiographic approach can become unsettling, with elements of P-Orridge’s character blatantly overlooked. Whilst cult-like ceremonial rituals and investigations of sex are discussed within Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, the documentary barely examines P-Orridge’s collection of fascist memorabilia and obsession with the Third Reich. Tension within their relationships with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Alaura O’Dell is mentioned, but Rodrigues omits any mention of alleged domestic violence committed against their partners. The director highlights how P-Orridge’s life and artistic endeavours became completely intertwined, and yet purposefully omits elements of their character from this narrative. In turn, the viewer leaves with a hazier understanding of P-Orridge’s work and intentions.

Rodrigues begins to capture the ethos behind P-Orridge’s art and music, understanding the malleable nature of the human ability to “wake every morning and choose to become anything and anyone we want.” Each endeavour was a method to discover a new way of perception, learning to take control of P-Orridge’s own fate and identity. However, whilst Throbbing Gristle, COUM Transmissions, and Psychic TV are discussed as P-Orridge’s musical endeavours, Rodrigues superficially explores their inspiration and importance. Often credited as the pioneer of industrial music, which P-Orridge describes as “rebuilding a magical approach to sound,” it would have been valuable to understand more about their seminal contributions to the avant-garde.

It would be impossible to fully condense Genesis P-Orridge’s prolific career in under two hours, in which Rodrigues creates an engaging investigation into their world and work, which they were committed to until the very end. The viewer can leave inspired; no matter how prolific or provocative Genesis P-Orridge was, human qualities of love and grief are shown to be unanimous.