The rarity of something like Jules Rosskam’s “Desire Lines” is reason enough for its existence. Woven in-between talking heads interviews with gay trans men speaking frankly about their experiences in the queer community is a fictional narrative about a trans academic learning to embrace his own attraction to men. It’s profound in its transgressiveness, especially when so many stories about trans people are either sanitized or made vulgar to the point of exploitation. While the narrative may occasionally feel a bit rote and drably shot, the documentary portions make it clear that there was heart put into the project. The tragedy of the AIDS crisis on cisgender gay men is well-documented at this point. It’s interesting that the film shifts focus onto Lou Sullivan, a trans gay man who died of an AIDS-related illness and had been mostly forgotten. It reveals a new heart-wrenching side of an already traumatizing part of queer history.
*This film was screened at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival
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