DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/TGZR-5H34
Defense Date
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
Photography and Film
First Advisor
Mark Boulos
Second Advisor
Sonali Gulati
Third Advisor
Nicole Killian
Abstract
Silver Sands is a thirty-minute documentary film and accompanying installation that traces the story of Marc Hampton, a gay, desert-dwelling Vietnam vet, former Playgirl model, and vintage car collector who lost two lovers to AIDS. Drawing on videotaped interviews, shots of his house and environs, and extensive use of his personal photographic archive, this work addresses evolving ideas of memory and representation within the queer community. The film is divided into various chapters which function as meditations on masculinity, aging, loss, spirituality and intergenerational relationships. Marc becomes an archetypal figure––the survivor––whose meandering recollections illustrate some of the complexities of gay experience in the past fifty years, and the difficulty of historicizing them. By emphasizing overlooked stories and forgotten spaces, exploring the tension between visibility and invisibility, and summoning the ghosts of the AIDS era, Silver Sands proposes remembering as a form of resistance.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
5-10-2019