Chris

“Calculating Euphoria” is a short, proof-of-concept for Recalculating Euphoria produced by LeoMark Studios in Los Angeles.

A mother remembers her brother as her son comes to terms with his partner.

At an underground club in the 1980s, a young man flirts with a mysterious older guy as the threat of a new "gay cancer" lurks on the sidelines. Four decades later, during the latest pandemic, the same man returns to the renovated nightclub where he meets someone as young as he was on that magical night long ago, stirring long dormant desires and fears.

A close-up look at the work and technique of photographer G. Elliott Simpson, whose haunting portraits of men covered in black paint are known for their strikingly disturbing beauty. Shot in a mixture of high definition video, 16 mm and Super 8, the work looks beyond the gloss of the artist's stylized photography to explore the relationship that homophobia plays in shaping body image as well as the role of sex and art in transcending violence.