Masc Goes to Hollywood
The Criterion Channel series I co-curated with Jenni Olson will have its in-person repertory debut starting Saturday at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles
Hey y’all.
So, it has been quite a summer. I visited my collaborator Willow in her Montreal recovery lodge from surgery that fixed her flat feet (she’s just like Barbie) and then got the nastiest flu-like symptoms that were neither the flu nor COVID despite the fact I lost my sense of smell and taste for a number of days. This happened on Barbenheimer opening weekend and my FOMO levels were through the roof. Nonetheless, I have recovered and will be presented and doing multiple Q&As in-person for the Masc series on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (will be traveling back home on Tuesday barring no weather delays). I am so excited, nervous, and eager to finally see this with an audience.
On Saturday, I embark on a cross-country plane trip to Los Angeles for the first time since 2017, which coincidentally was my first year of transition. Full circle? Not really sure or rather, not really what I expected to be doing when I returned to Tinseltown, but also am happy that I have grown into being somebody of note on the matter of talking about trans people in cinema. My own sister even sent me a screenshot of the series recently unprompted. She does not live in Los Angeles but knew I was doing something with UCLA and was surprised at the level of coverage I was getting. She was proud, I guess? I am not really used to that among family members, particularly in my film work. Listen, it is a little difficult of a sell to have your parents listen to your audio commentary of a rare Arthur Bressan gay porno or a watch a video essay I made about a Fred Halsted BDSM classic. I swear I do not have some self-fulfilling prophesy on swimming strictly in the unfashionable esoteric waters of film history but I grew up with people where I am the only member of the family who has seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. I am already the film freak of the litter.
I have such a short time in Los Angeles. I would love to do the Getty, visit LACMA again, go to the infamous Vanderpump Rules restaurant spots in WeHo, the Tom of Finland House, or the Griffith Observatory (heavy rain is really going to fuck up those plans) but I may well just go to the Academy Museum and also see Oppenheimer in IMAX 70MM. That is really all I have got lined up beyond the screenings which is their own allotted times. I hope if you are in LA that you do come to the Hammer Museum (it’s free!) and stay around for the Q&A discussions. There is some movement to not just have this series stop in Los Angeles and I will try to keep people posted on that. Not to be biased but I am looking forward to Cary Cronenwett’s Maggots and Men on Monday (allegedly the rainiest day of this LA storm) because it is such a rare occurrence and may very well have the most trans men cast in a movie that I have certainly ever seen before. Go! Please, go! I will be wearing my labor union shirt that night. Solidarity to my labor brothers, sisters, and siblings at the WGA and SAG-AFTRA!