Director Grace Hughes-Hallett (Three Identical Strangers), explains the process of bringing her new documentary feature, The Secret of Me, to the screen.
Produced by Rogan Scotland in partnership with Film 4, Channel 4, Screen Scotland and Dogwoof, the film has a limited cinema run at Bertha DocHouse ahead of its launch on Channel 4 in 2026. There will be a special screening and Q&A at the Everyman at The Whiteley 12th November
The Secret of Me: Like many intersex people, Jim underwent unnecessary, irreversible medical interventions early in life. The film traces the fraudulent research that justified such treatment. After demanding his medical records, Jim discovers that, like many intersex people, a physical gender presentation, carried out through invasive operations and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), was constructed for him in childhood – without full informed consent.
Over the years I’ve been making documentaries, I must have spent hundreds of hours looking for stories online, and yet my three most treasured projects- Three Identical Strangers, the podcast Dangerous Memories and now The Secret of Me all came about via conversations with friends and family.
The story behind The Secret of Me came to me via my brother, who is a surgeon. A few years ago, he called me from a medical conference and told me I must look into a scandal that doctors were speaking about there. It sounded so outlandish I couldn’t wrap my head round it at first- but research proved it to be true, and ongoing…
For me, the most memorable and compelling documentaries are always the ones that grab you emotionally by zooming in on personal and family stories. I wanted that for this story- so I started looking for someone who’d been affected by the medical scandal to make the film about. I found our lead contributor Jim via his activism work. When he told me about his extraordinary life, I knew he was the one. It’s a jaws on the floor, twist and turn filled rollercoaster of a story that’s more gripping than most Hollywood thrillers. He stumbled across his own extraordinary family secret as a teenager and then- whilst playing detective on his own story- found that he’d been part of an even bigger, crazier lie, on a global scale. When I found out that Jim was sitting on a trove of video archive of key moments in his life story, my documentary maker’s heart skipped a beat!
And then of course, there was the most important thing- did Jim want to do this? I don’t underestimate how intimidating giving one’s life story over to a documentary maker is, particularly when that involves trauma. Jim was brave in trusting us with a story that is raw and painful for him- his wellbeing was at the forefront of our decision making process through development, production, post and beyond. We made sure he had the option to speak to a psychologist for professional support throughout the process. As well as our duty of care to Jim, we also had a duty to the intersex community to tell this complex story respectfully and correctly. Our consultant producer Kimberly Zieselman was key to this- she’s a human rights advocate and an intersex person herself- Kim brought the education and expertise to the production team that we needed to do right by the story.
I think that one of the toughest things about being the subject of a feature documentary can be the wait. Jim and I started speaking in 2020 and we filmed his master interview in 2024- such is the nature of the commissioning and funding process. That’s a long time to sit with the nerves and the ‘what ifs, so thank you Jim for sticking with us!
The development process of the film went like this: I approached Channel 4 and Film4, who I’d pitched Three Identical Strangers to many years earlier. They agreed to support me with development money to run with the story, as they had done with Three Identical Strangers. I then met the amazing Rogan Productions.
From there we spent the next few years trying to make access and funding stars align. After Film4 and Channel 4 gave us the green light, Screen Scotland came on board as partners. This turned out to be the biggest blessing of the project as it led to meeting Glasgow-based producer Flora Stewart, one of the most talented people I’ve ever worked with. And also, our Scotland based DOP Julian Schwanitz, Executive Producer Mark Hedgecoe and all the other brilliant Scottish crew members.
A few weeks after we finally closed finance on the film, I found out I was pregnant with my third child. By the time of our last big shoot in the States, I was 8 months pregnant and so huge that I couldn’t tie my own laces- long haul flights and filming in the heat of Louisiana were a challenge. I gave birth during the edit- baby came to viewings, the grade and even a pick-up interview when she was a few weeks old. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to do any of this in my first or second pregnancy- mainly because it involved leaning on the rest of the team for help, which I think women tend to be bad at. And also, because we’ve been taught that mothers and directing don’t mix. Shout out to Executive Producers Nicholas Franklin and Soleta Rogan for having nothing but positive, creative solutions to scheduling a film round a pregnancy, to producers James Rogan and Flora Stewart for being so organisationally and editorially brilliant that I could afford to take a step back sometimes and to editor Esther Gimenez for spending a large chunk of the edit zooming with a baby.
I’m so proud of the film we’ve made- our premiere at SXSW this year was a dream come true. I hope people watch and enjoy it, and go out and talk to their friends and family about it afterwards. The harm done to Jim and thousands of other children is still considered the ‘right’ thing to do by many doctors in this country and across the Western world- we hope The Secret of Me can contribute to raising awareness and affecting change.
Credits:
Directed by: Grace Hughes-Hallett
Executive Produced by: Mark Hegdecoe, Nicholas Franklin, Soleta Rogan, Ollie Madden, Sacha Mirzoeff, Ben Coren, Mark Thomas
Produced by: James Rogan, Flora Stewart
International Sales: Dogwoof
Jon Creamer
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