Masquerades of Reasearch: Part I & II is an experimental biography of infamous sociologist Laud Humpgreys, starring Mark O'Halloran. The script seamlessly blends original writing with archival material from Humphreys archive. 

The film challenges misconceptions surrounding Humphreys' legacy and confronts dominant historical narratives regarding queer history. Through O'Halloran's nuanced performance, Humphreys’ challenges the assumed objectivity of sociology and its role in perpetuating repressive traditions of power. Part I begins in St. Louis in 1967 to give poetic insight into how the civil and social rights movement created the backdrop for his still controversial, ethnographic study. Part II begins tensely in Los Angeles in 1975, where Humphreys is on the cusp of republishing Tearoom Trade in a post-Stonewall and post-Watergate USA. The relevance one of sociology’s most radical studies has to contemporary discussions of research ethics, intimacy, social presentation, surveillance and data control is delicately carried by rich performances and visual intensities that keep as many secrets as they give away.