Desire Lines

       

         

Desire Lines 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. 

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

"In excavating transmasc histories and placing them alongside contemporary conversations, Rosskam has created a vital new document that is likely to spark some lively discussions and inspire viewers to do their own research on Lou Sullivan and other groundbreaking transcestors. Desire Lines packs a lot into its 83-minute running time, and the result is a refreshingly sex positive, layered, and stimulating work that deserves its place alongside films that blend trans history and the present, such as Chase Joynt’s Framing Agnes and No Ordinary Man, co-directed with Aisling Chin-Yee and co-written by Amos Mac, who was a consulting editor on Rosskam’s film. In a time when trans lives continue to be threatened by harmful rhetoric and legislation by regressive lawmakers, such impactful authentic representation of trans people is urgently needed. For all its specificity, this is essentially a film about the pleasure and complexities of human connection, which the joyous final sequence of the film revels in." - The Queer Review

       

"Desire Lines is hypnotic and enduring, a remarkably incisive work that should be seen far and wide, especially by those who believe they couldn’t possibly relate to the subject matter of this film." - Cinema Daily

      

" “Desire Lines” is a stunning feature focused on uplifting the voices of a vibrant community. The importance of that very thing, community, is at the core. Community takes care of each other, has compassion for each other. It uplifts and it protects. Community is needed now more than ever amongst not only trans people, but the world. Laws like the one in Utah are developing around the country. Films like “Desire Lines” offer a glimpse into who exactly those laws are affecting. Representation is so important when it comes to marginalized communities because of this very reason. Look at your neighbors. See them, hear them, and fight for them." - Cinema Femme

     

"Desire Lines is both frank and necessary in content and fresh and challenging in form. Students of gender and sexuality studies will welcome the film’s focus on transmasculine identity and desire. As in his previous, extraordinary work, Rosskam respects the complexity of his interview subjects and his audiences. Lou Sullivan’s remarkable story is given its due alongside the collaboratively created fictional story of a visitor to the archives, which is mysteriously connected to the bathhouse. Essential film for teaching transgender issues and documentary form alike." - Patricia White, Centennial Chair, Professor of Film and Media Studies, Coordinator of Gender and Sexuality Studies, Swarthmore College

         

"Desire Lines, indeed, charts many paths through queer, trans, and feminist history and connection. While each strand is beautiful and provocative in its intricate braid, most notable is the film’s critical intervention in the history of AIDS cultural production and education. Jules Rosscams’ careful attention to the experience of trans masculine subjects’ experiences—contemporary, historical, scripted and documentary—of pleasure, risk, medical care, and societal awareness in light of the possible transmission of HIV for this community. Harkening back to media made in the early chapters of the AIDS pandemic, Desire Lines provides education and challenges assumptions about what sexual practices put trans men at risk while honoring and representing their multiple flights of desire." -Alexandra Juhasz, Distinguished Professor of Film, CUNY, and author, with Ted Kerr of We are Having this COnversation Now: The TImes of AIDS Cultural Production (Duke University Press, 2022)  

        

            

Jules Rosskam is an internationally award-winning filmmaker, educator and 2021 Creative  Capital Awardee. His most recent feature documentary, Paternal Rites (2018), premiered at  MoMA’s Doc Fortnight and went on to win several festival awards. His work has been screened  at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Art Boston, the British Film Institute,  Arsenal Berlin, Anthology Film Archives, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, the Queens  Museum of Art, the Museum of Moving Images, and hundreds of film festivals worldwide. He  has participated in residencies at Yaddo, ISSUE Project Room, Marble House, PLAYA and  ACRE.