‘Every Body’ embraces those born not quite ‘male’ or ‘female’

Sean Saifa Wall (from left), Alicia Roth Weigel and River Gallo discuss their experiences with gender assignment surgery in “Every Body.” (Focus Features)

Plumes of pink smoke. Explosions of blue. Expectant parents laughing, screaming, fainting, shooting arrows or even guns. The new documentary “Every Body” opens with footage of the often absurd practice of elaborate “gender reveals.”

But by the end of this illuminating film, we’re forced to confront something much deeper and more insidious: society’s need to divide humans into a binary system, and the sometimes disastrous results for those born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that isn’t neatly “male” or “female.”