Launch of the book Cinemas of Bisexual Transgression by Jacob Engelberg, followed by a screening of the iconoclastic She Must Be Seeing Things (1987), about the revenge fantasies of a woman who thinks her girlfriend is cheating on her with a man.

In his book Cinemas of Bisexual Transgression, Jacob Engelberg calls for a bisexual reimagining of queer film studies, using transgressive cinematic figures who exceed gay/straight categorisation to challenge binary thinking – from 1970s vampire films to 1990s erotic thrillers; from lesbian imaginings of female bisexuality to European art cinema’s reckonings with HIV/AIDS. Revivifying the underexploited contributions of bisexual theory, he proposes a new mode of film theorisation and analysis that examines the rich space between and beyond dominant categories of sexual organisation, where sexual unpredictability, the allure of the forbidden, and the precarity of sexual signification are illuminated.

“The most comprehensive, considered, and thoughtful analysis of bisexuality in visual culture I have encountered.” – Maria Pramaggiore, co-editor of Film: A Critical Introduction.

Jacob Engelberg is Assistant Professor of Film, Media, and Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He will give an introduction ahead of the screening of She Must Be Seeing Things (30’). Afterwards, he will be interviewed by Misha Kavka, Professor of Cross-Media Culture at the University of Amsterdam.

She Must Be Seeing Things (Sheila McLaughlin, US 1987, 95')

Lawyer Agatha is taking care of her girlfriend Jo’s apartment in the heart of Manhattan in the 1980s, while Jo is away shooting a film. While Agatha is clearing out the dusty bookshelves, she finds Jo's old diaries, full of candid details about her many (male) former lovers. Agatha is drawn into a downward spiral of jealousy and sexual obsession. She starts to spy on Jo and imagines her having erotic encounters with male members of her film crew. John Zorn’s jazzy, driving music will also keep you on the edge of your seat.

Sheila McLaughlin drew on her own life for this seldom-screened, iconoclastic classic. Together with Lizzie Borden and Bette Gordon, McLaughlin was part of a small school of independent, queer filmmakers from New York. Her film caused controversy in lesbian and feminist circles for its provocative presentations of the protagonists’ fantasies, full of voyeurism, bondage, cross-dressing, heterosexual sex and fetishism.

Screens on 16mm from the Eye collection.

The book, published by Duke University Press, will be available to buy after the screening. In the summer of 2026, Eye will also be presenting a programme on Queer Joy and Queer Power.