In this surreal documentary film, the producer, writer and artist discusses a selection of objects related to her work with close friends and collaborators.

Content warning: a speech in this film mentions assault and rape

In music media, context and backstory are often conflated as the storyteller attempts to organize and explain the circumstances by which an artist and their work came to be. "For me, the worst nightmare would be ending up with a film that's somehow a construction of an artistic figure that had this singularity and a kind of growth path, if it started with photos of childhood and then talking to different people in chronological order about when they knew me," Terre Thaemlitz, the mind behind monikers like DJ Sprinkles, K-S.H.E. and G.R.R.L., tells director Patrick Nation in Give Up On Hopes And Dreams. For Nation, executing the documentary meant challenging many of his filmmaking instincts. With help from story editor Lawrence English, he had to move aside urges to shape the narrative in a linear or overly conclusive way.

On Thaemlitz's suggestion, the film is structured via listening protocols from activist-led sound art collective Ultra-red. As per these protocols, she picked five friends and collaborators, each participant brought a series of objects (in the form of audio, text, film or physical items) relating to her or her work, and the group engaged with the object by sharing what they heard or saw. The exercise took place over three days, with the discussion time for each limited to 20 minutes. Shot in 2018 at the Shizu Community Centre near Thaemlitz's home in Chiba, Japan, participants include friend and collaborator Aiko Tsuji, activist Dont Rhine, translator and lawyer Izumi Yoshida, cyberfeminist Laurence Rassel and producer and artist Mark Fell.

So much of cultural production and the development of cultural "icons" isn't owed to raw talent, dogged work ethic or even one's life experiences alone. More often, it's facilitated by casual conversations and so-called "object" exchanges between kin, friends or comrades. These invisible collaborators hold the potential to spark new insights that evolve work and points of difference against which an artist's personal vernacular and philosophies can be developed. In Give Up On Hopes And Dreams, viewers become acquainted with the deep house and ambient "icon" through excerpts of her work and interpretations of self, but also by the company she keeps, how she articulates herself, butts heads, listens and learns in an improvised community setting.

Crew
Producer / Director - Patrick Nation
Director Of Photography - Sophie Misrahi
Camera - Sam King
Sound Operator - 高田凛 / Rin Takada
Production Coordinator - 早川みどり / Midori Hayakawa
Translator - 下山光順 / Kojun Shimoyama
Story Editor - Lawrence English
Dubbing Mixer - Guy Clarke
Graphics - Jono Canning

Discussion materials / Terre’s work
Object #22 (video) - What’s Opera Doc?
Object #08 (video) - Silvia Rivera speech
Terre Thaemlitz - Silent Passability (Ride To The Countryside), Couture Cosmetique [Comatonse Recordings] 1997
Object #14 (audio) - Canned laughter
Terre Thaemlitz - Lovebomb, Lovebomb [Mille Plateaux] 2003
Object #6 (audio) - Yamaha DX100 ‘JazzOrg’ preset
Terre Thaemlitz - Canto I: Rosary Novena for Gender Transitioning, Soulnessless [Comatonse Recordings] 2012
Object #4 (text) - Samuel Delany - Times Square Red, Times Square Blue
Terre Thaemlitz - Canto III: Pink Sisters, Soulnessless [Comatonse Recordings] 2012
Object #16 (text) - Queer school regulations written by a group of teachers and students
Terre Thaemlitz - Systole.011, Interstices [Comatonse Recordings] 2001
Terre Thaemlitz - Admit It’s Killing You (And Leave): Sound/Reading For Gay Porn, Deproduction [Comatonse Recordings] 2017
Object #15 (video) - Miwa Akihiro and Mishima outing scene from "Kuro Tokage (Black Lizard)"