Yearly Archives: 2011

Art & Autobiography

A Room of V’s Own: Mx Justin Vivian Bond at Participant Gallery by

JWandrag_3381[1]

This summer I attended a farewell party at Mx Justin Vivian Bond’s apartment in the East Village. Actually, let me rephrase that. I attended a farewell party for Mx Justin Vivian Bond’s apartment in the East Village. From early afternoon through the midnight hour, friends and loved ones of V came to drink, dance, and bid a warm and sometimes angry farewell to a beloved loft space where over the course of 2 years, the adored NYC singer, author, performer and artist flourished. Within days of the party, the apartment would be vacated to make way for a new condo complex called Avalon. A few weeks ago the contents of Justin Vivian’s loft settled into a new home at the Participant Gallery for V’s gallery show The Fall of the House of Whimsy. I sat down for a drink with Bond to discuss the show and the increasingly autobiographical direction of V’s work.

Adam: Tell me about your new show at Participant.
Justin: It’s called The Fall of the House of Whimsy. I chose that because it’s opening on Halloween, and you know, in Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher this house that this artist is living in disappears into a mist at the end. And, my house that I’ve been working in is disappearing in the mists of Avalon, literally, because the developers that have done the Avalon Complex are turning my part of the building into a 12-story condo unit. The original tenants will each get an apartment for like $10 each, but for the rest of us, we’re out on our asses. My intention had been a show of my watercolors, but shortly before we had to move out in spring I was lying in bed one morning and the light was so beautiful that I just got out of bed and started photographing my apartment. I really started meditating on how creative I had actually been in the two and a half years that I had lived there. I produced my record and did the Jackie Curtis book with Hilton Als. I did my ReGalli Blonde show at The Kitchen, and we rehearsed it in that loft, and we rehearsed the Christmas Spells shows in the loft. I wrote my book Tango, had amazing parties and met amazing people in the loft. More…

Gay New York

We Could Be Heroes by

One of the most significant and rarely seen films by the underrated German gay filmmaker Rosa Von Praunheim, Tally Brown, New York (1979) is a verite documentary that follows the now forgotten downtown performer through her life. As seen in Praunheim’s film, Brown was a short, stout woman whose warm and unique demeanor suggested a combination of Little Edie Beale and Edith Massey. Brown appeared in three Andy Warhol films (Camp, Batman/Dracula, and ****) and was a fixture at 60′s and 70′s clubs like Reeno Sweeney’s, S.N.A.F.U, and the Continental Baths. Brown’s specialty was her German-tinged takes on classics by rock legends like David Bowie and the Rolling Stones. In the clip above, which opens Praunheim’s film, the camera slowly zooms in, letting us hear the powerful voice, before meeting its owner in full frame. When the two come together, it’s quite astonishing. A perfect tune for a full moon.

Art & Autobiography

Earth Camp One by

Since the dawn of cinema, film has dealt with the subject of death in an unimaginable number of ways. Think of melodramas where the couple finds love only to have a sudden cough render the hero or heroine fatally ill, or action and horror films where death is inconsequential – sometimes cathartic – amusement. Documentarian Jennie Livingston’s astonishingly influential documentary Paris Is Burning also featured subjects - marginalized gay men of color participating in New York’s outrageous drag ball scene – dealing with death. The film ends on a heartbreaking note, as one of its brightest subjects is revealed to have been murdered by a mysterious john who was never caught. As Livingston pointed out at a Queer/Art/Film screening of the film this past June, nearly all of the subjects in the film are now dead. The death of the titular “Paris” – Paris Dupree last month underscored her point. Now Jennie is making a new feature documentary called Earth Camp One that explores the way we deal with death as a society and as individuals. The film explores a major loss she experienced in the late 1990′s, when her grandmother, mother, brother, and uncle all died within four years of each other. But she describes the film as “neither therapy nor diary; it’s an expansive and deeply humorous trip around the outer edges of what it means to be alive and human.” Jennie needs your help to make the film happen though, with just about 2 days left before reaching the end of her Kickstarter campaign, she’s raised $29,000 of the $40,000 she needs to reach. If she doesn’t hit her goal, she won’t get any of the money. So please take a moment to watch the video and visit Kickstarter to give what you can to help support this project. If you consider what an impact Paris is Burning has had on the culture at large, imagine what Earth Camp One can do.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/802151454/earth-camp-one?ref=live

Production Diary

Day 158: Pick A Date by

IMG_4080

Today, we lock picture, which means we make the final decisions about what images will be, and what images won’t be, in the film. After that, we move on to several weeks working on the sound — and working once again with the sound designer, Damian Volpe, who has been my brilliant collaborator now for 16 years — but as of some point this evening, the movie will be fully edited. I’m glad to say I feel very calm about it. There are a few last choices that Fonzie and I need to make, but after many months of listening, and taking in, and responding, to viewer’s notes and thoughts, I feel now that I know the movie very, very well. And I know how to finish it up. More…

Production Diary

Day 147: My Boyfriend Boris by

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My boyfriend Boris loves the movie. I can sleep at night. That sounds more facetious maybe than I mean it, because I mean it. But sometimes one strong response — he’s a bad liar — is the thing you can hold on to, through the other bumps, other responses.  It also means that in the year ahead, I can keep his opinion, his pride, in my head and know that I have an audience. Someone close to me understood what I was up to, and thinks I succeeded. More…

Gay New York

Dear Biddy B by

JimBidgood

Our girl Biddy B- aka the magnificent photographer, filmmaker and wit James Bidgood – is back this week to tackle two problems, one of etiquette and the other of sexual appetites. Have a problem that needs a-solvin’? Send it in to adambaran1@gmail.com and we’ll get you an answer!

Dear Biddy,

During a recent excursion to avoid the perils of hurricane Irene, I stumbled upon an instance of disastrous host/guest etiquette. This rainsoaked affair involved a small cluster of early-20s blond girls who invited my friend and I (both gay men) to seek shelter in their “food and booze stocked” abode. We entered baring gifts, as any gracious guest would, and proceeded to construct a veritable cornucopia of food upon their table. They asked us to tape their windows for them, as their short arms prohibited them from doing, what they intoned, was a man’s job. Back in the kitchen, they stared quietly out at us, as they nibbled hungrily on the food that we had supplied. They proceeded to prepare a lavish meal and then as I watched in silent horror sat at the table before us and slowly ate without once offering us either food or beverage. After their meal had been consumed, our main host related, “I have a bottle of wine that’s been open in the fridge for a few days, now. I’m not sure if it’s any good.” I naturally passed. I am from the south, as was our blond host and I was fundamentally flummoxed by such behavior. —–(edited) —–Do I need to keep better company? Is old fashioned etiquette dead? Or does it just go home to Paris for the spring? Well, I am not.

Faithfully yours, Bradford
——-
Dear Bradford,

Well, Dahling, it would be equally cheeky of me to impugn any person or persons level of intelligence. Lord knows I myself am by no meter’s measure the brightest bulb in the chandelier and you convey the impression of being a very well educated fellow, although perhaps a mite loquacious. However, Dahling, I can not help but wonder —can you spell c.u.n.t.? More…

Gay New York

The World According to Tusk by

RNR Fag Bar Go-Go Dancers

Tuesday nights in the late ’80s meant Dean Johnson’s Rock and Roll Fag Bar at the World. Getting near the corner of Avenue C on 2nd Street back then involved passing a gauntlet of thin, aggressive guys offering heroin and it’s accoutrements: “need works?” they asked, “horse?” Or, “scag?” It wasn’t uncommon to see society’s dregs lying in doorways with a syringe dangling from their arm, blood dribbling out of the puncture. Dodge a crack head or two on the way, some beggars, a guy pissing against a tenement, and for your effort a gay paradise awaited. More…

News & Updates​The Movie

Director’s Commentary Part 2 by

In the second part of my in-depth interview with director Ira Sachs, conducted prior to the filming of Keep The Lights On, I asked Sachs about something we’ve devoted a whole section to on our site: the way autobiography intersects with our art-making process. Sachs also discusses another autobiographical film that influenced him, as well as how his decision to live “as transparently as possible” led to him writing the film. It’s interesting to consider Sachs’ responses, which seem so assured and confident, coming after his dramatic production diary post from last week where he realized, upon watching a first cut, that the film was definitely him. To my mind, it shows that the work involved in opening yourself up in the creative process is constantly evolving as one’s autobiography.

 

Gay New York

The Return of Vito Russo by

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It’s been 16 years since the documentary version of The Celluloid Closet, activist Vito Russo’s landmark book about gay representation in film, was released in theaters. Vito spent nearly his whole life watching films, screening them for others and helping to explain how film perpetuated stereotypes about gay and lesbian people in film. Tonight, Vito returns to theaters as the star of the film, rather than a spectator. Jeffrey Schwartz’s eagerly-anticipated documentary Vito, which explores Vito’s life as a cinephile activist as well as an important AIDS activist will screen at 6PM and 9:15PM at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the New York Film Festival. The screening is sold out, but there are rush tickets available for both screenings. The film features interviews with Lily Tomlin, Armisteaud Maupin, and many of Vito’s closest friends and colleagues. Don’t miss it.

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/vito

Production Diary

Day 133: A Piece Of Meat by

keepthelightsonedit

I guess its been a long time, because I forgot the ups and downs of editing, and how vulnerable it can feel. You are on a high, riding through the cutting, the scenes falling into place, and then you are opening the door, and you let people in — damn their opinions, the movie they are making in their head, as opposed to yours — and suddenly crash, bang, boom, and you wake up feeling like its the end of the world. And then the next day, you are back at it, in the middle, everything that was set becomes un-set, all the smooth cuts that you were impressing yourself with, you break apart, and then the roughness is back. The thing becomes alive again. More…