Content Advisory: This film contains explicit sexual imagery, nudity, and adult themes. Viewer discretion is advised. Recommended for mature audiences.

Velvet Vision is the story of photographer/director James Bidgood whose 1960’s beefcake photographs were unlike any others. Depicting elaborate fantasy scenarios drenched in lush color they transcended the genre. His film Pink Narcissus was initially credited to ‘Anonymous’ on its 1971 release date shrouding it in mystery. Falsely attributed to Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol, among others, it wasn’t until almost twenty years later that it was revealed to be Jim’s work.

Velvet Vision follows the process of Jim trying to shoot again after a forty-year hiatus while also delving into his past as window dresser, drag artist and costume designer. Jim’s struggles are a universal story; an outsider pursuing artistic endeavors to cope with their ostracization from society. His fantasy life became a mechanism to keep him tethered to reality as he traversed the fine line between genius and insanity.

Velvet Vision is now complete and has premiered at the Doris Duke Theater as part of the Honolulu Rainbow Film Festival on June 29th, where I won the Emerging Filmmaker Award. The film's international premiere took place at Luna Leederville as part of the Revelation Perth International Film Festival on July 6th.

It’s been screened at the OutSouth festival at the Carolina Theater on August 15th and 19th and at the Thailand Int’l LGBTQ+ Film Festival on September 3rd. And will show at Oslo/Fusion in Norway and Reeling Film Festival in Chicago in the coming weeks, with additional festivals to be announced shortly.

There’s also a September feature about the film in The Lab Mag (by the Laboratory Arts Collective) with a private screening at the Aster in Los Angeles.