Origin Story

What is the Poison Cure? For Peter Edelman, it's his alter ego in the comic book he's writing, a mysterious anti-hero who seduces and kills child abusers—a storyline that's bringing up his own long-repressed memories. For his co-author Tyler "Tai" Wick, a genderfluid teen artist in the group foster home where Peter is employed, it's the social workers who will deem him fit for adoption if he will suppress his female self, which they consider a split personality from his traumatic years working the streets. And for fashion photographer Julian Selkirk, who's trying to get Peter to say "I love you," it's the Christian faith that offers to help him break intergenerational patterns of alcoholism and violence, but at the cost of rejecting his sexuality.

Against the backdrop of late-1990s New York City sexual politics, these characters strive to redefine home and family in ways that are strong enough to contain their truths. From a Miami comic-book convention to a Christian men's retreat in Georgia, from an elite New Age wellness center to a BDSM dungeon in Manhattan, Origin Story follows their quest to determine the nature of healing and the price we pay for it.