Masquerades of ResearchMovie
The two-part feature film 'Masquerades of Research: Part I and II' is a fictional biography of pre-queer sociologist Laud Humphreys, author of the infamous book 'Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places' (1970, 1975). Part I begins in St. Louis in 1967 in a pre-Stonewall and pre-Watergate USA, exploring the impetus behind Humphreys “Sociologist as Voyeur” research method — a still radical gesture and one of the first in the Western canon to turn the ethnographic gaze back onto the hypocritical conservative mindset that created it. Why can’t statistics be avant-garde? Part II begins in his Californian office in 1975, where we find Humphreys sweating in a radically different USA on the cusp of republishing 'Tearoom Trade'. Its relevance to contemporary discussions of intimacy, social presentation and data control is delicately carried by visual intensities and rich performances that keep as many secrets as they give away.
About Masquerades of Research
Masquerades of Research is a 2022 movie directed by Padraig Robinson.
The production information lists a runtime of 1h 5m, an original language code of EN.
The credited cast includes Mark O'Halloran, Ivan Doan, Ricky Watson, Patrick Fitzsymons. The synopsis above summarizes the central premise without adding details beyond the available title information.
