Desire Lines

Desire Lines is a hybrid documentary that blends personal interviews, archival materials, and narrative fiction to engage in liberating conversations about bodies, attraction, and untold histories. Unapologetically honest testimonials from transgender men, confront the universal fear of naming and accepting who we are and what we want.

The fictional story centers on Ahmad, an Iranian expat who arrived in America at the onset of the AIDS crisis. Now in his 60s, Ahmad comes to the LGBTQ archives seeking a more candid version of his life by connecting with the stories of fellow gay transmasculine people. He forms an intergenerational friendship with Kieran, a twenty-something nonbinary archivist who moves through the world with a visibility Ahmad had felt was unavailable to him. 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. Intimate–and at times hilarious–interviews with trans-identified men punctuate their story throughout, revealing the power of humor and joy in the face of oppression.

Desire Lines is a testament to the power of revolutionary self-acknowledgment, underscoring that we can only access authenticity within ourselves by being alive to one another's inalienable difference.

Join director Jules Rosskam following the screening for a conversation with Jes Tom, Rekha Shankar, and Oscar Montoya for LAUGH IT OFF — a conversation considering the power of comedy as a tool not for enduring oppression but for fighting it.