Film-Installation / Short Film - 13’

“You Can’t Get What You Want But You Can Get Me” is a film and installation by Samira Elagoz & Z Walsh.  A unique slideshow documenting two long-haired trans men falling in love. Over the course of one year, the artist couple gathered photographs from real-life events such as their first kiss, meeting each other's parents, long-distance thirst traps, a staged wedding, and top surgery and its subsequent recovery. A sweet and steamy celebration of T4T love with life and art all tangled up.

“There is one piece that I would like everyone to see right now. It's You can't get what you want but you can get me (2023) by Samira Elagoz and Z Walsh . The video work manages to reach and record something about youth, love and life that you rarely come across. — If you have followed contemporary art closely in recent years, themes such as care and identity may already seem too familiar and repetitive. Therefore it's a small miracle in itself, how these themes come across from Elagoz and Walsh's work so fresh, direct and powerful.”- Helsingin Sanomat

Samira Elagoz is a Finnish/Egyptian performance artist and filmmaker currently based in Berlin. He has toured various international film, visual art, and performance contexts, winning several awards for his works, including the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale Teatro in 2022. Elagoz has dedicated his career to exploring gender discourse, sexual violence and its aftermath, the male gaze, digital romanticism, and intimate encounters. Educated in performing arts, he incorporates aspects of this medium into video and film, creating his own unique brand of “docu-fiction”. Elagoz consistently places himself within his films as a vérité-esque observer who is also being observed. 

Z Walsh is a Brooklyn-based transgender artist focusing on photography, with expertise in portraiture. Renowned within New York and Los Angeles’ creative communities, Z is celebrated for his raw, full-hearted depictions of his subjects and himself. Between producing, creative directing, shooting, and modeling, Z is considered a voice of his generation, but his passion lies in elevating trans voices and opposing trans masc erasure.