This work by LA-based artist Rhys Ernst invokes the story of Lou Sullivan, trans man and AIDS activist largely responsible for establishing the distinction between gender identity and sexual orientation. Cut with images of Ernst’s own examination of this figure and trans history, the video is structured by the search for and desire to identify transmasculine elders and an intergenerational exploration of gay transmasculine identity. Utilizing interview footage, excerpts of Sullivan’s book “Information for the Female-to-Male Crossdresser and Transsexual," VHS gay porn, and Grindr chats, 

 is a meditation on the life of the late trans man and AIDS activist that explores the bodily intersection of transmasculine gay and HIV+ identity.

 a program of seven videos that bring together charged moments and memories from their personal perspective amidst the public history of HIV/AIDS.

Dear Lou Sullivan

is 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. Testimonials from transgender men both past and present dissect how cultural expectations, political agendas, and gatekeeping practices shape the locus of desire.

The fictional story 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 of Chicago 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. An intergenerational friendship takes hold as Kieran realizes they are in the presence of a trans elder in need of guidance. Though they come from radically different cultures, Ahmad and Kieran’s bond is strengthened by a shared fascination with Lou Sullivan, a gay transgender AIDS activist. Ahmad sees himself in Lou, although his story is a sobering reminder of the cost of living as openly gay and trans.

Ahmad’s research blends fact with fiction, often diving into fantasy sequences that re-imagine the gay bathhouses of the 70s and 80s through a transmasculine lens. As his curiosity evolves, Ahmad’s insecurities begin to fall away. He’s fascinated when Kieran shares their experiences in the modern-day bathhouses of Chicago, though he initially lacks compassion when Kieran confesses to an STD scare. As the archive closes due to the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic, Ahmad makes a final attempt at reconciliation with Kieran, ending on the promise of a blossoming friendship before transitioning into a final fantasy sequence at a traditional Persian bathhouse filled with queer and trans patrons. At last, Ahmad can finally feel desired for who he is.

Their story is punctuated throughout by intimate interviews with trans-identified men about their varied experiences with gay male cruising culture, affirming interactions in a bathhouse, or lack of adequate healthcare for masculine-of center folks. These brutally honest exchanges bring to light the untold history of a group of people who have been doubly marginalized by straight and gay communities alike.

The film pivots between fantasy, fiction, and fact using the letters and interviews of Lou Sullivan as the historical core. Interspersed throughout are clips of the heart-wrenching final interviews between psychiatrist Dr. Ira Pauly and Lou in his final days before succumbing to AIDS. Alongside the contemporary oral histories from a diverse group of transmen across the US, participants candidly discuss the evolution of their desires and illuminate their struggles with gender (non)conformity, fetishization, transphobia, safer sex, and sexual racism.

 is a tender love letter to the gay transmasculine community and the legacy that Lou Sullivan, and many unnamed others like him, left behind.

Desire Lines

During a three-month residency serving as the Goethe at LUX Artist in Residence, Rosenfeld created a new filmic work entitled 

. After spending time in the LUX film archive, Liz came across Price‘s film, Sodom. At the time of its completion, Sodom was questioned by both the far-left and far-right for its depiction of the AIDS Crisis and its reflections on ‘pre-AIDS’ gay culture. After extensive research into the history, methodology and imagery of Sodom, Rosenfeld decided to create a new film portraying an infamous tree in the cruising area of Hampstead Heath while also reflecting on their own questions relating to shifting ecologies and queer historical public spaces. Taking from Luther Price’s methodologies of eroding film, Rosenfeld buried parts of their original print in the LUX Garden and also soaked it in their own cum.

While in residence at LUX, Liz conducted creative research dealing with questions of queer dystopia, a positive embrace of apocalypse, invisible genocide, and drawing parallels between the way information was publicly disseminated in the early days of the AIDS/ HIV crisis and the current spread of information about climate change and environmental destruction.

Fuck Tree

1991. The height of the AIDS crisis and a grim time for gay rights in the UK. A group of gay male nuns, the London House of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, decide to canonise Derek Jarman, a prominent queer filmmaker and the most public figure living openly with HIV at the time. They proclaim him Britain’s first living gay saint. 

brings the Sisters together again for the first time in over twenty years, to collectively piece together their memories and the joy, fury and pain they still feel about their years of frontline activism.

Saintmaking

 takes its title from the name of "the most exciting political action group in the USA"— transgender people who are defining themselves, demanding their legal rights, and fighting for medical care and against job discrimination.

 gives viewers remarkable insight into the home and work lives of transsexuals from many cultures and countries, including FTMs and those with families and children.

 (NOTE: This release is unfortunately cut short by several minutes.)

Considered by von Praunheim to be the “most fascinating [project] in my long life as a filmmaker,” 

 is a sensitive and carefully crafted portrait that deals with issues openly and honestly. “I was able to earn the trust of many who are often reluctant to be interviewed." 

Categories

AIDS