Lui Avallos: Queer Utopia: Act I Cruising
Portugal/Brazil, 2023
Duration: 25 min
Language: English/Portuguese
© Mundivagante Studio, Lui Avallos
In the quiet intimacy of his living room, a retired playwright makes a heartfelt revelation to the viewer, whom he addresses with nostalgic tenderness—as if speaking to a long-lost friend. He is losing his memories. What begins as a confession unfolds into an invitation: to accompany him on a deeply personal and transformative journey to reconstruct and preserve the fragments of his fading past.
Queer Utopia: Act I Cruising draws inspiration from real-life stories of queer men over the age of 60, whose lived experiences often go unheard. This immersive and interactive narrative beckons the audience to witness the protagonist’s most intimate, layered, and sometimes contradictory recollections before they vanish.
Using the expressive language of theater and a unique visual aesthetic of ephemeral, particle-based bodies, the experience becomes a poetic reconstruction of memory. These flickering, performative moments take shape in dreamlike spaces that hover between the real and the imagined.
Interwoven throughout is an intergenerational reflection on the struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights—blending memory, identity, and speculative possibility. By delving into the past, the experience not only preserves what is at risk of being forgotten, but also dares to imagine a more inclusive, utopian future.
