Filmmaker Catherine Gund’s intimate portrait of performance artist Ron Athey charts his early career from redefining “go-go dancing” at the legendary Club Fuck! in Los Angeles to an international tour featuring his first major ensemble pieces, Martyrs and Saints, Four Scenes in a Harsh Life, and Deliverance.

Raised to be a Pentecostal minister, Athey channelled his messianic calling into a ritual artistic practice that mobilizes religious iconography, sadomasochism and extreme piercing into a means of transcendence. Athey and his deeply personal work have drawn a family of like-minded performers around him. The bond of trust these outsiders share as they explore and blur the boundaries of desire, sexuality and trauma, emerges as one of the film’s central subjects and an enduring testament to the power of Athey’s life and art.