Narrow Rooms: The Passion According to G.H.B.

Join Visual AIDS for the US Premiere of The Passion According to G.H.B. by Vinícius Couto & Gustavo Vinagre. A short version of Vinagre and Couto's film was originally commissioned by Visual AIDS for Day With(out) Art 2025: Meet Us Where We're At. In this joint presentation of the feature-length film, Blake Paskal, Visual AIDS Programs Director, will introduce the film with curator Adam Baran. A pre-recorded conversation with the filmmakers will take place afterwards

Visual AIDS artist members can receive a free community ticket, as well as, anyone for whom the cost might be prohibitive. Contact Blake Paskal at bpaskal@visualaids.org for a community ticket.

Tickets available here.

The Narrow Rooms screening program is curated and presented by Adam Baran.

Synopsis

It’s raining in São Paulo and Matias and a stranger are about to spend the afternoon getting high and having sex. But when Matias cuts up the stash, neither credit card, powder, or straw are visible on screen. As the drugs kick in and the chemsex begins, we watch as afternoon stretches into evening, with more tricks invited over, more invisible substances consumed, more visible tongues and penises entering orifices, and conversations between the men about their substance use, Covid-isolation, HIV, PrEP, and Clarice Lispector’s beloved 1964 novel “The Passion According to G.H.” Narrow Rooms is honored to present the U.S. premiere of this thrilling and intense collaboration between acclaimed queer Brazilian director Gustavo Vinagre (UNLEARNING TO SLEEP) and artist/director Vinicius Couto, who drew on his own experiences to bring the role of Matias to the screen. Featuring a cast of non-actors also drawing on their own experiences, this improvised experimental “magical realist gay bedroom odyssey” looks at the experience of chemsex in a fresh way, preserving its characters’ humanity and refusing to inflict punishment for “bad” behavior. Though potentially triggering to viewers with substance abuse history or folks upset at seeing sex onscreen, the impact of Vinagre and Couto’s emotional film is sure to stay in your systems long after the credits roll.