Desire Lines

Synopsis

A wonderful hybrid documentary that blends personal interviews, archival materials, and narrative fiction as a framework for exploring the complicated and often unwritten history of transmasculine sexuality.

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 of Chicago to explore his latent homosexuality and engage in fantasy to reimagine his life as an out, gay trans man. 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. Assisted by Kieran, a younger nonbinary archivist immersed in queer culture and trans community, a friendship soon forms – strengthened by a shared fascination with Lou Sullivan, a gay transgender AIDS activist.

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.