Pathology, Poetry and Pleasure: HIV/AIDS, Confessional Writing and S/M in Un año sin amor

In the Argentine film, Un año sin amor, the protagonist Juan Perez discovers he is HIV-positive, immerses himself into the S/M scene, and publishes a memoir (with the same title as the film). This essay shows how the director of the film, Anahí Berneri, uses these three interconnected developments to to intervene in the global cinematic discourse on queerness in Argentina, on HIV/AIDS, on sadomasochism, and on the creative process itself.

“Pathology, Poetry and Pleasure: HIV/AIDS, Confessional Writing and S/M in Un año sin amor (Anahí Berneri, 2005),” in Despite All Adversities: Spanish-American Queer Cinema, eds. Andrés Lema-Hincapié and Debra Castillo (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2015), 71-95.