The Attendant

Directed by Isaac Julien

Memory mixes with desire as a museum attendant is caught up in sado-masochistic fantasies inspired by a 19th century painting of slaves in chains called Scene on the coast of Africa. The man remembers his past as a singer and delivers Dido's lament from Purcell's opera.

This film is currently unavailable to watch. It may be unreleased at this time, or may no longer be available to watch.

A museum devoted to slavery becomes the setting for a sexual fantasy about race, power and submission in The Attendant. Isaac Julien’s gay short film is dense, camp and deliberately provocative, mixing Tom of Finland imagery with colonial history and BDSM. It can feel intellectually overloaded, but the collision is the point: desire here is never separated from the histories attached to bodies.

The Attendant

Directed by Isaac Julien

Memory mixes with desire as a museum attendant is caught up in sado-masochistic fantasies inspired by a 19th century painting of slaves in chains called Scene on the coast of Africa. The man remembers his past as a singer and delivers Dido's lament from Purcell's opera.

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This film is currently unavailable to watch. It may be unreleased at this time, or may no longer be available to watch.

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A museum devoted to slavery becomes the setting for a sexual fantasy about race, power and submission in The Attendant. Isaac Julien’s gay short film is dense, camp and deliberately provocative, mixing Tom of Finland imagery with colonial history and BDSM. It can feel intellectually overloaded, but the collision is the point: desire here is never separated from the histories attached to bodies.

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