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Desire: Poetics & Pornography

From Fireworks, which Kenneth Anger described as "all the explosive pyrotechnics of a dream" to Easy Garden, Anie Stanley's lyrical silent montage of carnivals and girls, this program traces five decades of experimental depictions of sexuality. Whether it's in the prison of Un chant d'amour, Jean Genet's great poetic masterpiece of power, love, and lust, or in the museum, where Isaac Julien's The Attendant explores the pleasures of sado­masochistic relationships, these films blur the line between poetics and pornography.

Short films showing in this program:

The Attendant

9 mins

A middle-aged museum guard locks eyes with a sexy young visitor, igniting a series of fantastical tableaux that wittily riff on race, sexual power dynamics, art history, gold lamé briefs, and Tom of Finland.

The Attendant

9 mins

A middle-aged museum guard locks eyes with a sexy young visitor, igniting a series of fantastical tableaux that wittily riff on race, sexual power dynamics, art history, gold lamé briefs, and Tom of Finland.

Both

2 mins

A beautifully ambiguous study of the nude in light and movement, this short silent film focuses on the dimly lit bodies of two women shot from Child’s distinctly non-male perspective.

Dreams of Passion

5 mins

A dance film that depicts Black lesbian desire, featuring contemporary dancers Matima Hadi and Debra Floyd as well as original music by multi-instrumentalist Vicki Randle.

Dyketactics

4 mins

The first lesbian lovemaking film made by a lesbian, Dyketactics reveals Hammer’s aesthetic connecting sight and touch. 110 images in 4 minutes make this sensate film a "lesbian commercial."

Ecce Homo

7 mins

An inquiry into what is pornographic. This film features images form Jean Genet's masterpiece, Un chant d'amour, along with images from gay male sex films in order to question what is "pornographic."

Fireworks

20 mins

A landmark of both experimental and queer filmmaking, Kenneth Anger’s film is a bizarre, disturbing dreamscape of violation, rape, and homoerotic sadomasochism.

Hermes Bird

11 mins

This 11 minute homage to the male member shows its subject in the various stages of erection. The voice-over poem by James Broughton includes the line "This is the secret that will not stay hidden."

Oblivion

5 mins

A luminous erotic portrait of a young neighbourhood hustler, that successfully blends elements from both the poetic and diary modes, and in the process creating one of the few truly erotic works in cinema.

Un chant d’amour

26 mins

Two prisoners in complete isolation, separated by the thick brick walls, and desperately in need of human contact, devise a most unusual kind of communication.

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Running Time
94 mins
Section
Shorts Programs
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