Dear Shaded Viewers,
I’m thrilled that my 1992 video On the Campaign Trail with Joan Jett Blakk will be screened at BAM! the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Sunday November 17 at 4:30pm. I’ll be there to introduce the video. It’s playing with Gregg Bordowitz’s 1993 documentary Fast Trip, Long Drop, a film in MoMA’s collection. Tickets can be purchased here.
Examine the depths of queer identity in this one-night-only program featuring an episode of The Brenda and Glennda Show and Gregg Bordowitz’s deeply personal documentary.
On the Campaign Trail with Joan Jett Blakk (1992)
Dir. Glenn Belverio
29min
In this episode of The Brenda and Glennda Show, the guerilla-drag public access talk show, host Glennda Orgasm meets up with guest co-host Joan Jett Blakk to discuss Blakk’s 1992 presidential run outside the Democratic National Convention in Manhattan. The pair dive into topics including the police state, weaknesses of the two-party political system, feminism, and political elitism.
Fast Trip, Long Drop (1993)
Dir. Gregg Bordowitz
54minIn the spring of 1988, video-maker and activist Gregg Bordowitz tested HIV-antibody positive, prompting him to quit drinking and taking drugs, and to finally come out to his parents as gay. This imaginative autobiographical documentary began as an inquiry into these events and the cultural climate surrounding them, but morphed when, while writing the film, a close friend was diagnosed with breast cancer and Bordowitz’s grandparents were killed in a car accident. The cumulative impact of these events challenged his sense of identity, the way he understood his own diagnosis, and the relationship between illness and history.
The program is part of the BAM! series OUTRAGE! Movies and the Culture Wars, 1987–1996, curated by Paul Dallas.
Decades before cancel culture and trigger warnings, the battle over who can say what in public exploded in the media during the late 80s and 90s. As the AIDS crisis raged, American conservatives targeted provocative artists and stoked moral outrage in an effort to end federal arts funding and erode public trust in liberal institutions. This backlash against civil rights and free speech became known as the Culture Wars.
But some artists and filmmakers fought back against this censorship with work centering identity, exploring taboo subjects, and deploying graphic imagery. In this diverse series, we’re exploring the early battles of the Culture Wars via fearless creations by Gregg Araki, Harmony Korine, Todd Haynes, and even Martin Scorsese, alongside lesser-known features, documentaries, and shorts.
Hope to see you there!
Love,
Glenn Belverio
