presented by Anthology Film Archives
by Marion Scemama
2018, 78 min, digital
“In his brief, notorious life, artist David Wojnarowicz burned hot and bright. Born in poverty and raised in neglect, sexual at a young age and hustling as a teenager, he was the right artist to shake up the 1980s East Village scene with explicit sexuality and dissections of toxic American culture. His work was always in-your-face: photographs of men having sex among the dilapidated Hudson River piers; a post-punk band called 3 Teens Kill 4; and a series of angry, sexy videos, which were attacked by fundamentalist right-wingers. Director Marion Scemama and editor François Pain, both friends and collaborators of Wojnarowicz, artfully bring together interviews shot in his cluttered apartment in 1989, along with rare glimpses of his beautiful, provocative art. This simmering documentary builds toward the intense, outraged live performances he delivered at the height of the AIDS crisis, before his death in 1992. It’s an intimate portrait of the serious, goofy, anguished, brainy, and horny sides of an essential artist and activist who gave voice to unapologetic queerness at the end of the 20th century.” –K.M. Soehnlein, FRAMELINE
“In an interview conducted in 1989 by cultural theorist Sylvère Lotringer, Wojnarowicz speaks candidly about intimate moments in his life, the creative process, sexuality, AIDS, and coming to terms with one’s own death – at a time when society categorically refused to face up to the AIDS epidemic. Marion Scemama, who was a close friend of Wojnarowicz and who filmed the interview, has created an incomparable essay out of [this conversation] and previously unseen work drawn from the artist’s and her own private archives. Interweaving Wojnarowicz’s charismatic observations with excerpts from his work, she has succeeded in creating a deeply moving film that looks into the soul of a man who exposed his vulnerability in a variety of aesthetic forms.” –BERLINALE
This program is presented as part of Lower East Side History Month.