Filming non-normative embodiment: power, sexuality and genetic difference in Jabe Babe - A heightened life, a documentary about a dominatrix with Marfan Syndrome

his article will examine the ethical and directorial challenges faced by the documentary filmmaker when collaborating with a central subject who lives with a potentially fatal genetic condition, whilst pursuing a career as a professional dominatrix. What modes of representation and collaboration are open to the director, when artificial boundaries and television genre categorisations such as ‘the science documentary’, ‘the biography’ and the fetish or ‘porno film’ seem limiting? Jabe Babe – A Heightened Life (Merewether 2005) seeks to collapse and merge these conventionally distinct practices by developing a hybrid mode of representation, provoking questions about society's desire for sexual, visual, and genetic conformity.