erik (A)

Erika Schinegger was the 1966 women's downhill skiing world champion. She was a popular figure; Austrian athlete of the year, she was a farm girl with a no-nonsense attitude, a funny haircut and a deep voice. In 1967, a urine test decreed that genetically she was a man, and her career came to an abrupt halt.
In fact a genuine hermaphrodite, Erika was forced to confront the gender confusion she had always felt but had been discouraged to address. Against the well-meaning advice of her family and the Austrian Skiing Federation, she started learning to be a man and embarked on the full process of gender reassignment. Erika became Erik.
[Erik(A)] tells a complex story about gender politics, identity, masculinity and sports bureaucracy. Using original super-8 footage, first-person voiceover, and interviews with friends, coach, team mates, mother and others, it is a compact, compelling but measured look at one of the strangest episodes in the history of sport.
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D/P Kurt Mayer S Hanne Lassl WS Austrian Film Commission TD 35mm/ col/2005/86mins
Kurt Mayer was born in Austria in 1951. His films include [Life Frames Austria] (1998, short), [Swimmers in the Desert] (2000), [Galle Road] (2003, short).