Thursday, August 28th | 8 – 9:30PM
Location: Orchid Contemporary | Crown Point East, Hamilton ON
Factory Media Centre and Orchid Contemporary are excited to present a free outdoor screening of Jules Rosskam’s 2024 film Desire Lines, a hybrid feature film that blends personal interviews, archival materials, and narrative fiction as a framework for exploring the complicated and often unwritten history of transmasculine sexuality.
Due to limited seating, we ask that you RSVP here. The address of the event space at Orchid Contemporary and more details about the screening will be shared by FMC staff. This is an 18+ screening event.
Synopsis
Desire Lines centers 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.
About the Venue
This screening is presented in partnership with Orchid Contemporary, a garage-turned-gallery space located in Hamilton’s East End that was created to highlight underrepresented artists and feature programming that is responsive to surrounding artistic communities. It is run by Adrien Crossman, a Hamilton-based artist, curator, writer and educator.
About Factory Media Centre
Factory Media Centre is Hamilton’s not-for-profit artist-driven resource centre for film, video, new media, installation, sound art, and other multimedia art forms. Our mission is to develop and support a vibrant, sustainable, creative, and diverse community of Members and non-Members within Hamilton and its surrounding region.
This event is made possible thanks to generous funding from the incite Foundation for the Arts, a non profit organization dedicated to revolutionizing support for the arts in the Hamilton Community.