Fireworks Logo

Latest Shorts...

  • Melk
  • Hot
  • ¡Ay! Cordero
  • Queer New Orleans: A Journey Beyond Bourbon Street
  • A la carta
  • Yigayo Yuwuerane
  • Paroxysme
  • Petite Mort (La)
  • Brush Story (A)
  • Red Ribbons of Love
  • Arlo and the Sea
  • Dare to be Fabulous
  • If I Die in America
  • ILY, Bye
  • Sébastien Delage: Baise platine
  • Sébastien Delage: Karaokétamine
  • Mafia's Obsession (The)
  • Misunderstanding
  • Adolescence
  • Wank
  • Lesbians
  • Nymphaea
  • Girl Blunt
  • Shuck
  • Blue Moon Angels
  • Aunt Valeria
  • Until Dessert
  • Daniel Really Suits You
  • Also the Heart Is A Muscle
  • Dutch Touch
  • Kissing Day
  • Acrobats
  • Devil and I (The)
  • Nepenthes
  • Male Gaze: Risk Appeal (The)
  • Penis
  • Cathedral
  • Wrecked
  • Chemsex
  • Male Gaze: Bitter Sweet (The)

Attendant (The)

Country: UK, Language: English, 8 mins

  • Director: Isaac Julien
  • Producer: Mark Nash

CGiii Comment

Let down by some truly amateur visuals...there is a semblance of a good story - an opportunity wasted.


No trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

A young white man visits a gallery of old master paintings. When the museum closes, he stays behind, arousing the sexual fantasies of an older black museum attendant. In one of these fantasies, the 19th-century painting ‘The Slave Trade (Slaves on the West Coast of Africa)’ by French artist François-Auguste Biard metamorphosises into a group of leather-clad gay men.

With an activist’s commitment, Isaac Julien takes a look at the sexual and racist dynamics of power from a cultural-historical perspective. Made with the support of the Black Audio Film Collective (1982-1998) in a period under the sway of Thatcherism and the AIDS crisis, the film impressively and poetically explores the topics of imperialism, queer self-determination, lust and death. ra.

Cast & Characters

Thomas Baptiste as Attendant;
Cleo Sylvestre as Conservator;
John Wilson as Visitor;
Paul Bernstock as Player;
Roy Brown as Player;
Andy Denys as Player;
Stuart Hall as Player;
Hugo Irwin as Player;
Christian Jones as Player;
Deighton Kavarne as Player;
Hanif Kureishi as Player;
Edward Lam as Player;
Keith Lennon as Player;
Mike Phillips as Player;
Norman Rosenthal as Player