Perspective Film Series: Shame (2011)

Perspective Film Series:

Shame (2011), dir. Steve McQueen

July 28

5:30 PM | Dome Theatre

2011 | UK | 101 mins

Steve McQueen’s Shame follows the seemingly ordinary life of Brandon Sullivan (Michael Fassbender), a successful New Yorker who struggles with sex addiction. His meticulously controlled existence begins to unravel with the arrival of his younger sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), whose presence forces him to confront the cracks in his own life. Brazen yet deeply melancholy, Shame asks us to consider the place that sex occupies in a hyper-capitalist system, and the ways in which power and intimacy are negotiated (and practiced) in and through the body.

Disclaimer: This film contains difficult subject matter and imagery, including strong sexual content and nudity, as well as images of/references to self-harm, which may be triggering for some viewers.

 

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The 2024 edition of Perspective is curated by Muriel N. Kahwagi, Assistant Curator at Contemporary Calgary. The series will feature monthly screenings that amplify voices from the Global South, deconstructing broader moving-image practices through an anti-colonial framework. In particular, this year's Perspective will focus on filmic works from the Caucasus, as well as Southwest Asia and North Africa, a region that continues to grapple with the enduring legacies of colonial violence.