Exhilarating in their emotional and conceptual depth, the films of multidisciplinary artist Angelo Madsen Minax explore queer and trans desire, chosen and biological kinships, landscape, and the cosmos. Taking shape as essays, rituals, and intimate exchanges, they often draw on Minax’s background in DIY, punk, and activist communities. Scholar Jill H. Casid has fittingly described his approach as an “alter-cinema of kink, kin, and kind.” Minax will present four recent videos—Bigger On the Inside (2022), The Source Is A Hole (2017), The Eddies (2018), and Two Sons and a River of Blood (2021)—and a brief reading, followed by a discussion exploring the ideas and approaches that underpin his practice.

Presented in partnership with Video Data Bank. Minax will present a second program of his works at the Leather Archives and Museum on Saturday, October 5.

Program

Bigger On the Inside (2022, USA 12 minutes)
From an isolated cabin in the woods, a trans man gazes at the stars, Scruff chats with guys, watches YouTube, and micro doses—feeling his way through a cosmology of embodiment. In this state, bodily insides become both portal and lens through which to probe the porousness between interior and exterior, micro and macro.

The Source Is a Hole (2017, USA, 24 minutes)
A mystical voice contemplates mythology, science fiction, sexuality, and death as a series of holes: through which to travel, through which to perceive, through which to accept, through which to speak.

The Eddies (2018, USA, 16 minutes)
A death and destruction–obsessed trans man searches for human connection in the humid Southern underground worlds of internet hook-ups and storm tunnels.

Two Sons and a River of Blood (Directed with Amber Bemak, Mexico, 2021, 11 minutes)
Two Sons and a River of Blood draws parallels between pregnancy, transness, and a shared desire for multiplicity through the erotic rituals of two queer women and a trans man. When the woman miscarries her child, the three draw on their shared love and grief to access the otherworld of non-bodies.

About the Artist

Angelo Madsen Minax (BFA 2005) is a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker, and educator. His projects consider personal and collective histories with specific attention to queer subcultures and the politics of desire. Minax is currently a Guggenheim Fellow and USA Artists Fellow and has received awards and fellowships from the Sundance Film Institute, New York State Council on the Arts, the Warhol Foundation, and the LEF Foundation, among others. His award-winning 2021 film, North by Current, aired on season 34 of POV (PBS) and is currently streaming on KANOPY. Rolling Stone called the film "a beautiful, complex wonder” and Criterion declared it "a titanic work." An alum of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Minax is currently associate professor of Time-Based Media at the University of Vermont.

Accessibility

The Film Center is ADA accessible. Theaters are equipped with hearing-loops. CATE events are presented with real-time captions (CART). For other accessibility requests, please visit saic.edu/access or email cate@saic.edu.

SAIC Student Tickets

All CATE programs are free for SAIC students. Unless otherwise noted, SAIC student tickets are released five days prior to showtime. Tickets must be picked up in person from the Gene Siskel Film Center box office. A student ID is required.

Conversations at the Edge: Screenings, performances, and talks by groundbreaking media artists. Conversations at the Edge is a collaboration between the Film Center, Video Data Bank, and SAIC’s Department of Film, Video, New Media and Animation, organized by Amy Beste, Director of Public Programs, SAIC. View full program.