San Francisco

[coyotegoth]

I'm just back from San Francisco, having gone out to (see people and) attend a showing at the Castro of my erstwhile film school classmate Jeffrey Schwarz's new documentary Vito, on the gay film historian (he wrote The Celluloid Closet) and activist Vito Russo. It's a major subject: Vito Russo was an observer at Stonewall, and actively involved in GAA and many other '70s and '80s iterations of gay activism; the film uses this to offer a precis of gay activism in America, from the pre-Stonewall culture in which gay people tended (although there are exceptions: gay activism in America goes back at least as far as the 20s, and probably further) to simply flee before society's persecutions, culminating in footage of Russo, ill with AIDS but still working with ACT-UP, offering passionate denunciations of Reagan and encouragement for his fellow gays, until his too-soon death in 1990. As I said in Facebook, "In 1987, Rob Epstein worked on Peter Adair's Word is Out; in 1995, my classmate Jeffrey Schwarz worked on Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's (documentary adaptation of) The Celluloid Closet; now, Jeffrey Schwarz's new doc Vito just showed at the Castro. Awesome that he got this made; awesome that gay LGBT American cinema has such a lineage."

Beyond that... although I missed far, far too many of the people I'd hoped to see, the days were nonetheless wonderfully crowded, thanks principally to feyandstrange and digitalsidhe's sociability, which at various time included a streetcar ride out to the Buena Vista (where our tablemate regaled us with stories of how her father played bass for Benny Goodman just after WWII); a walk/climb back from there to Grace Cathedral (which has an "AIDS Interfaith memorial chapel" including wall decorations of symbols from several religions (in which the crucifix does not have the top slot) and a metal triptych by Keith Haring; I stared at this for a long, long time), and a return visit to the superlative Fleur de Lis. Another Facebook quote: "As my plane took off, fog was rolling in; the Transamerica Pyramid (long a favorite SF landmark) was obscured, although I could just see the antennae poking up from Twin Peaks, and could almost imagine sitting down at the counter at Orphan Andy's. Everyone I saw, it was absolutely lovely; missed contact with: I'm sorry, and August for sure!"

Comments

[oceanic.livejournal.com]

So sorry we didn't get a chance to hang out-- except for one memorable outing to the redwoods, I basically left the office to eat dinner and then go back to the hotel to work some more. Glad you had a good time though!

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

My timing is terrible. I was in NYC while you were away.

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

Sometime, we have to say hello :)

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

We'll just have to say hello on THIS coast!