ADMISSION: 
Admission is free and open to current USC students only. RSVP beginning Monday, January 5, 2026, at 10 a.m. 

RSVP

Content Warning: This event involves discussion and imagery of body piercing, suspension, and nudity. Viewer discretion advised.

DESCRIPTION:
One day after the screening of A Body To Live In, USC students are invited to a closer-look with filmmaker Angelo Madsen at ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. Curatorial Assistant Quetzal Arévalo will kick off the program with a tour of the exhibition NEED ME, or, (de)mystifying the myth of the modern primitive, a show that focuses on the queer history of modern body piercing, where works by Fakir Musafar will be made public for the very first time. Following the tour, Angelo Madsen will share unreleased footage from his feature-length documentary about Musafar and discuss the archival research process, the story of how the film came to be, the ethics of documentary editing, and touch on themes of the film, such as BDSM's relationship to mental health and trans relationality.

Students are encouraged to bring questions about their own work, practice, and methods. The event is meant to be an intimate dialogue between artists, curators, and students interested in queer history and how to tell it.

Bios:
Quetzal Arévalo (they/them) is the Getty Marrow Emerging Professionals Curatorial Assistant at ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. They are the curator of NEED ME, or, (de)mystifying the myth of the modern primitive (opening at ONE Archives February 25, 2026), the first public exhibition to present the western renaissance of body piercing as definitively queer history rooted in the sexual underground. They were a co-curator of Sci-Fi, Magick, Queer L.A.: Sexual Science and the Imagi-Nation (Aug. 2024–Mar. 2025); The Space We Take: Portraits from the Archive (Jun. 2025–Jan. 2026); and Robert Andy Coombs: No Content Warning (Jun.–Sept. 2025). Before their curatorial fellowship at ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, they received their BA in History of Art from UC Berkeley with a departmental citation award and highest university honors. Their current research at ONE explores body modification, kink, subculture, and their enchanting intersections.

Angelo Madsen (previously known as Madsen Minax) is a filmmaker, visual artist, and educator. His projects consider how human relationships are woven through personal and collective histories, cultures, and kinships. Madsen’s works have shown at Berlinale, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, HotDocs, BAM CinemaFest, Art of the Real, BFI, Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Leslie Lohman Museum, Outfest, Newfest, Frameline, and dozens of LGBT film festivals internationally. His film North By Current (2021) aired on season 34 of POV (PBS) and won both a Cinema Eye Award and an IDA Award for Best Writing. A New York Times Critics Pick, North By Current has been called “A beautiful, complex wonder of a film” by Rolling Stone. Madsen teaches video art at the University of Vermont and is a Queer|Art Mentor, a United States Artists fellow, and a Guggenheim fellow. 

Related Event: 
Exploring Fakir Musafar with Angelo Madsen and Ron Athey
Thursday, February 26, 2026, at 7 p.m.  
Tommy’s Place  
For more info, click HERE. 

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Quetzal Arévalo (ONE Archives at the USC Libraries), Luka Fisher (Curatorial Studies), and Alexis Bard Johnson (ONE Archives at the USC Libraries).

Photo (Angelo Madsen): Leah James