Set in a near future where a government-approved drug can alter your sexuality, Artist Kevin Gaffney presents his latest film work followed by a Q&A with Michael Birchall, Curator of Public Practice at Tate Liverpool and Senior Lecturer at LJMU.
The corporation marketing the drug targets vulnerable gay people who have checked into a cruising resort which doubles as a correctional facility. Advertisements present the pill as a party drug for wealthy straight customers who have burned out the experience economy: “come take pleasure in marginalized sexual experiences without affecting your personality”.
Coded with references to pseudo-medical practices such as gay conversion therapy (which attempts to turn people straight, causing psychological problems for an already vulnerable minority), the film reflects on the church and medical profession’s history of interfering with the lives of LGBT/queer people. Incorporating archival footage of a gay & lesbian run church in Manchester in the 1990s, we hear accounts of exorcisms and suicide attempts. The indifference of priests and doctors to these young people’s lives is symptomatic of the church, state and medical community’s treatment of LGBT people historically.
Far from the reach of the sun revolves around the protagonists sharing their innermost thoughts and feelings; tumultuous worlds at odds with the power structures surrounding them. The film reflects on the effects of isolation and homophobia on a queer person’s relationship with themselves and others, and the plethora of stereotypes and contradictory messages that queer people navigate daily.
