imagineNATIVE 26 FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW! For a glimpse of the new frontier of sharing outlooks on the topic of disease, gaze upon the incredible experimental short Host, written and directed by the two-spirited video performance artist Zachery Cameron Longboy. It opens up with a floating ameba under a microscope, which then expands into a galaxy. Silhouettes of insects appear, with their bodies filled with roadmaps of blood, with virus cells floating around.
Longboy is crumbled on the ground, bathed in a deep reddish hue. The words “In my dream, the bedbugs who had exposed the ravages of Parkinson’s, HIV, and my spinal issues were now carrying me to the water’s edge” in ticker tape across the bottom. In an animated sequence, two figures walk through a twisted forest, each a host for the disease inside. Longboy’s body lies prone on the sidewalk, as the flesh of the face morphs into something indescribable.
“Longboy’s Host is the prettiest thing I have seen involving HIV this century.”
This one took me back to New York in 1990. It was the height of ACT UP, and I was downtown at a gallery show by David Wojnarowicz, an HIV positive artist. They were huge paintings with incredible imagery, mixing mythology with commentary. I have never seen any other artwork that has impacted me in that special way, not until now. Longboy’s Host is the prettiest thing I have seen involving HIV this century. It is a f*****g masterpiece.
What is truly impressive about Longboy’s work here is the slavish devotion to the arcane practice of old-timey video art. Fantastic analog video effects, like superimpositions, are revolutionized to new heights. Even at a scant 10 minutes, Host is an epic work of video art like no other. Even at its most bizarre, you immediately understand everything that is going on, like Longboy is speaking in a secret language in a tongue of flame. Never has something so beautiful been made from a subject so horrible. Host is the reason why experimental video art is a craft that will forever keep expanding.
Host screened at the 2026 imagineNATIVE Film Festival.
"…an epic work of video art like no other..."
