Shameem Kabir explores lesbians film from early representations to contemporary ones, spanning sixty years and over twenty films. Concentrating on lesbian desire and subtext, Kabir draws on films such as Queen Christina, The Killing of Sister George, Rebecca, The Hunger, Desperately Seeking Susan, When Night Is Falling, Go Fish, The Color Purple and Thelma and Louise. She details their narratives in conjunction with an examination of different spectating positions and new synthesis of filmic languages.

Deploying lesbian history, black subjectivity, feminist film criticism and material from psychoanalysis, Kabir explores narrative, identifications and desire. From castration and agency to the fetishization of beauty, from mothering, narcissicm and Oedipus to rage and trauma, Shameem Kabir breaks new ground in film studies and feminist theory.