Queer Cinema: Desire Lines
Friday 20 March from 6:30pm to 8pm
Queer Cinema is a movie night dedicated to celebrating queer stories of love, loss, joy and history.
On the 3rd Friday of the month we’ll be screening a film with drinks and snacks provided. Bring your chosen family and enjoy this special night!
March’s movie is: Desire Lines (2024) M [CC]
Desire Lines is a hybrid documentary blending candid interviews, archival materials, and narrative fiction as a framework for exploring the complicated and often unwritten history of transmasculine sexuality.
The fictional story centres on Ahmad, an Iranian expat who arrived in the US at the onset of the AIDS crisis. Now in his 60s, concealing his trans identity for decades has meant distancing himself from intimacy. Ahmad comes to the LGBTQ archives to explore his latent homosexuality and engage in fantasy to reimagine his life as an out, gay trans man. He is assisted by Kieran, a twenty-something nonbinary archivist who is immersed in queer culture and trans community. Though they come from radically different cultures, their bond is strengthened by a shared fascination with Lou Sullivan, a gay transgender AIDS activist.
The film pivots between fantasy, fiction, and fact using the letters and interviews of Lou Sullivan as the historical core. Interspersed throughout are interviews with a diverse group of transmen across the US, candidly discussing the evolution of their desires and illuminating their struggles with gender (non)conformity, fetishization, transphobia, safer sex, and sexual racism.
Runtime: 1h 21m