De Profundis

Lawrence Brose

De Profundis is a mesmerizing and seductive investigation of Oscar Wilde’s project of Transgressive Aesthetics. Incorporating home movies from the 1920s and early gay male erotica along with images from Radical Faerie gatherings and queer pagan rituals, radical drag performances and images of confinement, the film sets up a haunting investigation of queerness, masculinity, history, and sexuality.

In De Profundis. Lawrence Brose adopts a three-part strategy to investigate the historical implications of sexuality, gender construction, and language; to explore Oscar Wilde’s poetics; and to critique the homogenization of the contemporary gay movement.

The film employs experimental hand and alternative chemical processing techniques to alter the original images. The transformed footage addresses the fixed framing of masculinity while questioning concepts of redemption, contamination, and transgression set against critical readings of Wilde and of contemporary gay culture. These images are buttressed against a soundtrack composed of Wilde aphorisms, a score by Frederic Rzewski, and multi-tracked interviews of diverse contemporary gay men.

Lawrence Brose, who cannot travel or Skype, will give a video Introduction and Q+A exclusively made for Fusebox immediately after the film.

The Lawrence Brose Legal Defense Fund is a Class A Not-For-Profit organization founded by a network of advocates for Buffalo film artist and former CEPA Gallery Executive Director Lawrence Brose. Mr. Brose is presently defending federal charges of possessing illicit images on a shared computer in the Artist loft of CEPA Gallery. The charges include one hundred of his film frame prints from his highly acclaimed film De Profundis, based on Oscar Wilde’s prison letter.

Lawrence maintains his innocence against all charges. The Defense Fund was established to raise funds and public awareness to further Mr. Brose’s defense. The members of the Fund and its supporters believe that Mr. Brose is the victim of prosecutorial overreach, and that he is being targeted as a gay artist.

Lawrence needs your support. To this end a website has been published by friends, colleagues and supporters of Lawrence Brose. The purpose of the website is to attest to Lawrence’s innocence, to provide a forum for testimony on his behalf, and, importantly, to collect funds needed for his legal defense.

Please visit the website at: http://lawrencebroselegaldefensefund.com to review the testimonials, read the published articles, list of Notable Supporters and consider donating to the defense fund. This is going to be a protracted ordeal but Lawrence’s attorneys feel very strongly that they will be able to exonerate him and restore his good name and reputation.

The National Center for Reason and Justice also supports Lawrence in his quest for freedom. Tax deductible donations can be made through http://ncrj.org/lawrence-brose

ARTIST WEBSITES:

lawrencebrose.com

lawrencebroselegaldefensefund.com