“Desert Hearts: An Aging Queer Trilogy” is a threesome of video essays that engage with and excavate representations of aging queer female subjectivity, homophobia, and desire in Desert Hearts (directed by Donna Deitch, 1985). These works act as companions that each address aging queer subjectivity differently: the first, through a mainstream lens in trailer form that fetishizes lesbian love; the second, in which I embed myself as queer subject into the film to speak to and from three different character viewpoints; and the third, which is made only of excerpts from the film that are arranged and layered to lay bare how homophobia has been so present in film representations of queer life. These corresponding video essays examine how queer narratives and characters are portrayed in Desert Hearts through their on-screen romance—how their queerness, rejection of queerness, potential queerness, and participation in queerness as seductress or seduced are used to keep active and legible their desire for the viewer.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Dayna McLeod (2024) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: