I AM SO FULL OF LONGING AND DESIRE IT GUSHES

OUT OF MY KNEES AS THEY SCRAPE THE GROUND

REPRESENTATION AS A METANARRATIVE IN FANTASTICAL FICTION FILM

PROGRAM NOTES

The fantasy genre has long been a reliably accessible realm to which escape from reality’s brutality is perennially possible. But in the millennia since human beings first began opening doors to fictional worlds in flight from their all-too-real ones, and especially as the world’s populations have continued to merge and migrate, entertainment media (as with most other distinctly hominid phenomena) has grown to chiefly emphasize a long since emerged dominant perspective. As fiction has evolved from a collection of insular mythologies relevant to, rooted in, and reflective of their respective times and places into a universal refuge sought the world round, the globalized protagonist has taken form: his is that of a straight, cisgendered, white, able-bodied male.

In recent decades, a considerable effort to amplify the voices long excluded from fiction’s canon has emerged –– but the reality remains that marginalized populations have long sought solace in a connective and connected storytelling, regardless of its success on the world stage. Creators across history have come to use the very escapist medium that so often excludes their narratives as a means of escaping that exclusion. Today’s programming provides a small sample of cinematic works that speak to the adaptive reuse of the fantasy genre in presenting the perspectives it frequently overlooks. The cinematic worlds you are about to enter are the creations of queer and/or BIPOC artists diverse in their ages, origins, perspectives, and influences, but united by the self-realization of a shared desire to see one’s own story represented on the fantastical plane.

ACT I: I AM SO FULL OF LONGING AND DESIRE

Tita Cicognani …Longing and Desire…

ACT II: IT GUSHES OUT OF MY KNEES AS THEY SCRAPE THE GROUND

Kenneth Anger Kustom Kar Kommandos

ACT III: UPON WHICH I CRAWL TOWARDS YOU

Cauleen Smith Sojourner