Jose Luis Benavides

Lulu en el jardín

Jose Luis Benavides

This documentary recounts the saga of Lourdes Benavides and her family’s many attempts to cure her of her lesbian desires as a teenager. Queering the archive through found footage, first person accounts and extensive research into Chicago-Read Mental Health Center, this intimate and experimental documentary uncovers the deeply personal story of Lulu’s struggles with her identity after migrating from Mexico City to Chicago’s westside during the 1970s. From intersecting histories of institutional racism, homophobia and sexism comes the voice of a tenacious Latina and her queer son’s journey to retrace his mother’s steps and treatment across a city.

Turath aw Hadara

Jose Luis Benavides, Qais Assali

"From archives to community building, this video engages U.S. histories of racialization and objectification through and documentation of discussions and participation with the Arab/Muslim community of Dearborn and Detroit, Michigan. As a video-collaboration between Qais Assali and Jose Luis Benavides created for the exhibit “Costume Party at the Moslem Temple” at MSU Union Gallery (2019) this work culls various collections, original footage and conversations with an ex-Playboy Bunny and community activist as well, to chart the often overlooked history of orientalism, Islamophobia and minstrel brown-facing, or Arab-facing inherent though invisible to our discussions of American racism in order to question the limits of our awareness and our true understanding of culture and civilization."

Lulu's Journal

Jose Luis Benavides

Amanda Cervantes

This video-poem projects my own thoughts and feelings musing in voice of my mother to tell parts of her story previously untold. I imaged her writing in a journal while being institutionalized at Chicago-Read Mental Health Center when she was a teenager. Through a collection of episodic journal entries and poetic investigations, the voice of the young artist Amanda Cervantes reenacts the queer, Latina youth of Lourdes Benavides or Lulu, my mother. Rather than embody her they reflect a psychic space and interiority; the private place of reflection and consciousness muted by the institution and the insidious powers of homophobic and patriarchal Western culture.