Athletic Model Guild | First Impressions

How could I have missed PINK ULYSSES (Eric de Kuyper, 1990)? A clear descendent of PINK NARCISSUS (James Bidgood, 1971) , a contrast, and perhaps to some, antidote to Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY, it’s queer desire, palpitating and in heat, wrought from a collage of found, perhaps nicked is the better word, materials from a previous history of culture where traces of it could be made manifest: opera, Zarah Leander, Athletic Guild Model Films, the films of Sergei Eisenstein, the music of Igor Stravinsky, silent epics with Greece or Rome as a setting. It’s tied together through film tableaus of various episodes including Penelope waiting for Ulysses but somewhat longing for her son, Telemachus, who in turns longs for the return of his father with a desire that is not without a sexual component. A reverie of longing, fevered dreams, struggles with desire. Queering of classics couldn’t have found a better expression or example. It would make a wonderful double bill with PINK NARCISSUS. Nolan’s ODYSSEY is too long to be double-billed with anything.

José Arroyo

The groundbreaking and influential Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism and Photography and Film from their Beginnings to Stonewall is coming to its 25th anniversary. I talk to Tom Waugh to ask about the intellectual and social context in which the research took place, the methods developed to produce it, the way materials were gathered, who was interviewed, the many barriers to its publication, how the book was received then and why it continues to be so influential now. The video contains images from the book and other sources to illustrate the discussion which albeit vintage are nonetheless explicit. One of the struggles of the book, and one of its glories, was to publish such images in a scholarly context.