The talk explores the convergence of the de-generation of film celluloid and videotape as highly-unstable visual materials that inevitably break down and the concept of gay male generation, where the important political gains of previous generations are taken for granted, rejected, or entirely forgotten. My case studies range from an anti-Vietnam War porn film from 1973, award-winning “safe sex” VHS porn videos from the 1990s, and social distancing digital porn during the Covid-19 pandemic. I argue that it is through recording and re-dubbing old images anew that will enable and ensure the preservation of sexual memory and the expansion of sexual possibilities for future queer generations to come. The talk will be supplemented by a screening of short experimental videos.

Nguyen Tan Hoang is an experimental videomaker and writer based in San Jose, California, USA. Nguyen’s videos include Forever Bottom! (1999), PIRATED! (2000), K.I.P. (2002), look_im_azn (2011), I Remember Dancing (2019), and Sad Porn (2024). Their research interests include Asian American visual culture, Southeast Asian cinema, queer cinema, experimental film, race and pornography, and videographic criticism. Nguyen’s experimental videos have screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, and the Pompidou Center in Paris. They have programmed film, video, and performance for MIX NYC: New York Queer Experimental Film Festival and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Nguyen is a member of the working group International Videoessay Research Network (IVERN). Nguyen teaches film, media, and cultural studies in the Department of Literature at UC San Diego.