{"id":875420,"date":"2026-08-31T21:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875420\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T21:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T21:00:20","slug":"hobart-filmmakers-endometriosis-documentary-endo-girl-lands-on-sbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/875420\/","title":{"rendered":"Hobart filmmaker\u2019s endometriosis documentary \u2018Endo Girl\u2019 lands on SBS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Hobart filmmaker\u2019s documentary about endometriosis is set to reach a national audience after being picked up by SBS On Demand.<\/p>\n

Sophia Bender\u2019s 20-minute film Endo Girl is available to stream for free from today.<\/p>\n

The documentary shares the stories of 13 women living with endometriosis, exploring their journeys to diagnosis and the effect the disease has had on their relationships, fertility and everyday lives.<\/p>\n

Endometriosis is a chronic condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside it, which can cause severe pelvic pain, fatigue and difficulties with fertility.<\/p>\n

\"\"Filmmaker Sophia Bender performed as the lead dancer in Endo Girl<\/p>\n

It affects about one in seven Australian women.<\/p>\n

Their experiences are brought to life through dance and visual storytelling, with Bender herself performing as the lead dancer.<\/p>\n

\"\"Bender trained in classical ballet in Sydney and Perth before filmmaking<\/p>\n

Bender, 33, grew up in Hobart and attended St Michael\u2019s Collegiate before training full-time in classical ballet in Sydney and Perth.<\/p>\n

It was during her studies at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts that she discovered a passion for filmmaking, partly driven by injuries and undiagnosed endometriosis that had been limiting her dancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found a massive love for filmmaking,\u201d she told Pulse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an art form that after being injured for so long, I could kind of camera and run with it, in a sense and be really free and didn\u2019t have anything holding me back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The 20-minute documentary Endo Girl is now streaming on SBS On Demand<\/p>\n

She went on to complete a Bachelor of Fine Arts in film and television at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne before working with the Australian Ballet for around five years.<\/p>\n

She moved back to Tasmania during COVID and now runs a ballet coaching business in Hobart alongside her filmmaking.<\/p>\n

To find participants for Endo Girl, Bender joined endometriosis support groups on Facebook and sought out women of different ages and backgrounds.<\/p>\n

The youngest participant was 13 at the time and the eldest was in her mid-50s.<\/p>\n

\"\"SBS picked up the documentary for nationwide streaming<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really sick of kind of, you know, even when I first started making the film, talking to strangers or making conversation with people, even in an Uber or something and you\u2019d say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m making this film about endometriosis,\u2019 and no one knew what it was,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The film was originally released in 2021 but struggled to gain traction due to COVID shutting down the film festival circuit.<\/p>\n

It was nominated for an Australian Dance Award that year.<\/p>\n

Now, SBS has picked it up and it will be available nationwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Hobart filmmaker\u2019s documentary about endometriosis is set to reach a national audience after being picked up by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,344],"class_list":["post-875420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}