BUTT Cinema
Curation
2023

To celebrate the launch of their 32nd issue, alternative gay and queer culture magazine BUTT invited me to curate an all-night cinema for their CLUB BUTT event at ICA London. Recalling the now-closed porn cinemas of London, the program of sexually explicit shorts and features invited the audience to encounter a diverse range of narratives and bodies, from classic gay porn to gender-queer science fiction.

Review︎︎

Shorts: Wildblood (Jonesy, 2009), Ronnie (Curt McDowell, 1972), Pedagogue (Stuart Marshall & Neil Bartlett, 1988), Liz/James/Stillholes (Liz Rosenfeld, 2005/2017), Steam Clean (Richard Fung, 1991), Blank Narcissus (Peter Strickland, 2022), Doors Cut Down (En Malas Companias) (Antonio Hens, 2000)

Features: Ask Any Buddy (Elizabeth Purchell, 2020), I.K.U. (Shu Lea Cheang, 2000)

Photographs by Anne Tetzlaff
Event date: 10 March 2023
Commissioned by BUTT and ICA London

La licorne
Film
2022

Digital video, 16 mins

La licorne (The Unicorn) is a short documentary exploring the life and career of French striptease artist and actress Rita Renoir, and her relationship to Île du Levant, a naturist island in the South of France. 

The film weaves various archival elements including interviews with Rita, her performances, and material relating to the history of the island, to build a tender and complex portrait of a underrecognised feminist icon and a unique naturist utopia.

︎ to request viewing link

Narrated by Agnès Thiollier 

Made in collaboration with Joseph Savage, Paul Bacharach, Marco Novoa, and Adrien Pelletier

Commissioned by Villa Noailles (France) and supported by Elephant Trust (UK)


Little Joe
Publication
2010–Ongoing

As the founder, editor, designer, and publisher of Little Joe, I aimed to create a unique forum for the discussion of cinema, sexuality, gender, and queer history. Since launching our first issue in 2010, the publication has become an important place for stimulating dialogues on film, leading the way in the queer analysis of moving images past and present. Each limited-edition issue features essays, in-depth conversations, short stories, comics, commissioned artworks, and archival discoveries.

To complement to the publication, we curate screenings and events in the UK and internationally. Our collaborations encompass institutions such as Tate Modern, ICA London, LUX, Kunstverein Amsterdam, Light Industry and The Cinema Museum. We also partner with film clubs and festivals, including Dirty Looks, Edinburgh International Film Festival, BFI Flare, Queer Lisboa, and Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest.

littlejoemagazine.com︎︎

Little Joe was featured in MoMA’s Millenium Magazines, a survey of experimental art and design magazines published since 2000.

A collected edition of the journal will be published by SPBH Editions in 2024


Vagevuur
Performance Reading, Text
2019

As a recipient of the Van Abbe Museum’s Deviant Practice research grant (2018-2019), I undertook research into Vagevuur—Eindhoven’s internationally renowned gay fetish club—which closed its doors for good in 2008. The culmination of the research was a text and performance reading in which I discussed the history and culture of the club, and the processes and ethics of embodied research.

Website︎︎

Performances: ‘Museum Takeover: Bodies of Knowledge‘ at Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 3-5 May, 2019

Supported by Van Abbe Museum (Netherlands)



Et in Arcadia Ego
Film
2018

Super 8, digital transfer, 6 mins

Et in Arcadia Ego observes old, now-defunct public toilets that acted as cruising spots in London. Shot on 8mm to emphasise its plaintive quality, it is an elegy for these lost queer spaces and a pilgrimage to their ruins.

︎ to request viewing link

Camera, Editor – Sam Ashby
Music – Jordan Hunt
Sound – Joseph Campbell
Colourist – Chloe Thorne

Commissioned by London Short Film Festival with support from Arts Council England

Premiere: London Short Film Festival
Screenings: Queer Lisboa


© 2023
London, UK