Mar 12, 2024

Producer Robert Lang (Why We Dance, Museum Secrets) and director Michelle Mama (Shine True) bring Kensington Communications’ latest project Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary to CBC’s The Nature of Things launching on March 28, 2024 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC and CBC Gem. Hosted by the award-winning non-binary comedian Mae Martin, the film explores the little-known science of gender and sexual fluidity in the natural world.

Fluid debunks dangerous pseudo-scientific myths and introduces cutting-edge research to reveal that in a very real and measurable sense, we are all gender fluid.

“There is no one better equipped to host Fluid than Mae Martin and there is no better time for audiences to have access to the revelations in the film. Blending humour with science, Mae sheds light on the most recent findings about gender and sexual fluidity in humans and many other species.” said producer Robert Lang. “They were an incredibly thoughtful collaborator on this project and we look forward to sharing our special documentary with audiences across the country.”

Guided by eminent biologists Joan Roughgarden and Justin Rhodes and famed primatologist Frans de Waal, Mae discovers a hermaphroditic ginger plant, sex-changing clownfish and kobudai, and mammals - lions, hyenas and chimpanzees - that display surprisingly non-normative sexual traits.

In the realm of human research, Mae meets with trans historian Jules Gill-Peterson to explore the misguided but unfortunately still influential gender studies of the 1960s and 70s. Then Mae delves into the current gender controversies, seeking out the best and most up-to-date answers from brilliant researchers including child psychologist Kristina Olson, prominent neuroscientists Gillian Einstein and Lise Eliot, and three young trans/non-binary scientists - Daniel Pfau, Elle Lett and Simone Sun - who take on the challenges of gender research from a gender non-conforming perspective.