All language subtitles for Chris McKim - (2020) Wojnarowicz - Fuck You Faggot Fucker

[clock ticking]

[music]

DAVID WOJNAROWICZ:
Testing one, two, three.

Testing one, Mo.

Testing, testing,
testing, testing,

testing, test, test, test.

DAVID: We rise
to greet the State,

to confront the State.

When I was diagnosed
with this virus,

it didn't take me long
to realize

I'd contracted
a diseased society as web'.

[static sound]

[music]

DAVID: It could be construed
as critical,

but ix' you're doing
a show of AIDS,

there's absolutely no way
that you can separate

politics from AIDS.

TV REPORTER: For six years,
what's happening

is we update our top stories.

East Germany today
took down the Berlin Wall.

Bottom line
is I may be dying of AiDS

in America in 1989.

Isn't that political?

I don't have health insurance
and that I don't have

economic access
to adequate healthcare.

Isn't that political?

And to try to become
the subject of AiDS

and not have a political tinge
to it is ridiculous.

PHIL ZWICKLER: Who was that?

John McKenzie
is putting this up together

tor Peter something
ox' World News tonight.

- Peter Jennings?
- Yeah.

- You mean like national news?
- Yeah.

Oh, shit. 1 didn't--
I should've had that recorded.

Are you recording
all ox' this today?

- Yeah.
- You're gonna make art

- out of it, huh?
- Yup.

TV REPORTER:
Tonight in Manhattan,

art exhibit about AIDS is
losing a lot ox' federal money

because of what will be shown
in the exhibit.

TV REPORTER: The chairman
of the NEA states,

“We find that a large portion
of the content

is political rather than
artistic in nature."

Some of the content
includes criticism

or' Cardinal O'Connor,
Senator William Dannemeyer

of California,
and Senator Jesse Helms

for their support
of the new restrictive law.

Thank you. This weather
is certainly no work ox' art.

PHIL: S0 are you gonna do
Nightline tonight?

Uh, I somehow just can't
see it. Like 1--

D0 you think you'd throw in
a shirt if you did?

Well, that's what
I was thinking of already

my wardrobe.

I mean, I--If I did,
I might wear a ski mask

and Yd, you know,

carry a bucket ox' gasoline.

From Philadelphia,
I'm Terry Gross with Fresh Air.

TERRY". The art
ox' David Wojnarowicz

has recently been
at the center or' controversy

because the subject matter
deals with sexuality and AIDS.

Let's talk about
how you started making art.

Now, you came from a really
rough family background.

Your father abused your mother.

You ended up in an orphanage
for a while.

Then your father kidnapped you
from the orphanage.

And you've written
that you later threw yourself

into sex and you became
a hustler for a while.

How did you start
making art?

[music]

DAVID: Whatever work I've done,
it's always been informed

by what I experienced
as an American in this country,

as a homosexual in this
country

as a person who's legislated
into silence in this country.

One, two, three, four,
civil rights or civil war?

I'm not gonna be polite
and fuck these people

that want me
to be courageous.

There's no expression
in that other than silence.

As each T-cell
disappears from my body,

it's replaced by 10 pounds
of pressure, 10 pounds of rage.

I tried very hard to be normal

and tried very hard
to be accepted.

On some level,
it's a terrific waste of time.

[static sound]

- MAN: Wojnarowicz?
- MAN: Wojnarowicz.

- MAN: Wojnarowicz.
- MAN: Wojnarowicz.

DAVID: Fuck you faggot fucker.

DAVID: Fuck you faggot fucker.

[music]

STEVEN WOJNAROWKZZ:
David was Mo years younger

than me and Pat
was sort ox' the big gift.

r don't remember him
ever aspiring to do art,

or to be a doctor,
or into lawyer,

or anything else.

I think we were probably
too consumed.

We're frying to survive
in any given moment

than to be worried about
what was going down the road.

Dave and I
used to go out in the woods.

We'd get away from my father.

He was horrific
when he was drunk.

DAVID: I grew up in a tiny
version of hell

called the suburbs.

I had a father who brutalized
both his first and second wives

with physical violence.

Any signs ox' life
in the family he supported

with his paycheck
from his job as a sailor

was met with extreme violence.

In the universe of the -

I could think of what it felt
like as a five or six-year-old

being dragged
down a basement stair,

to have my head and body
hit with a dog chain

or somehow a chunk of 2x4.

In my home, one could not laugh,
one could not express boredom,

one could not cry, one could
not play, one could not explore,

one could not engage
in any activity

that showed development
or growth that was independent.

[music]

CYNTHIA CARR: I guess
life on the streets

got really rough and David
ended up in a halfway house.

He had not graduated
from high school at that point.

When he finally went back
to school

was when he discovered
Rimbaud and Genet,

they both
are outlaws and rebels.

And he always identified
with outsiders his whole life.

And these
were the outsider writers.

[cassette recorder clicking]

DAVID: Testing tape journal one,
two, three.

[music]

[train chugging]

DAVID: So, it looks like
we ended up

in Jamestown, North Dakota.

That's the halfway mark
between east and west.

[music]

DAVID: Feels like something
out of an old west picture,

dusty roads,
old board buildings,

time family houses
all around it,

great stretches ox' sky,
tong tines ox' trains.

The tracks, when you look
at them, they shimmer.

R looks like thousands ox'
little animals running across.

Then there's the constant
flapping ox' bird wings

like [makes sound]

Occasionally you hear a train
whistling miles away

but the trains
never seem to get here.

[static sound]

- [cassette tape clicking]
- [dog barking]

DAVID: That was - French for,
"All right, pinheads,

I 'm just sitting here
in my sister's apartment

using her tape recorder,
trying to figure out

what the hell to say "

[music]

DAVID: As far as publishing,
forget it.

The last woman
that I sent the manuscript to,

this woman in Black Sun,
Le Soleil Noir,

called me up like after a month
and told me

she wanted to return
my manuscript.

And she said that the people
in the monologues

are wasted lives
and was a wasted time

to write about them.

I mean, everything she said

just reinforced my belief
ox' its importance.

It's like that. I mean,
it's like the galleries, too.

The stuff that I work on
takes so long to do

that the price
that Yd have to ask

ix' I was gonna make a living
off is just too much

especially
since her taste gravitate

towards what will work
in prints.

We been having,
like, just tons and tons

ox' dreams ox' America
and American road and highways.

I really miss
the energy in New York.

Paris gives you a sense
ox' strange security,

which does make me happy.

So, I guess,
H! say goodbye here.

[speaking French]

Bye-bye.

[airplane engine revving]

[camera shutter clicking]

[police siren wailing]

- [water gushing]
- [indistinct chatter]

[girl screams]

[crowd chatter]

[horn honking]

[bell chiming]

[engine revving]

[camera shutter]

DAVID: I 'm just doing a series
of photographs

for the Rimbaud
in New York.

[music]

DAVID: I got a job
in an ad agency

for all ox' Mo
and a ha?! weeks,

operating a staff machine

that! ended up
doing all my homework.

[music]

DAVID: I start at this face
of Arthur Rimbaud glued up

and made a - mask
and by riding in subways

wandering all through
the warehouses

hustling in Times Square.

DAVID KlEHL:
David was taking Rimbaud

through what was his world
in New York.

[music]

MAN". - come on, man. Come on.

DAVID: I grew up as a hustler.

I grew up hustling
in Times Square

and all sorts of places
all around New York.

And then ox' all
different descriptions.

[police siren wailing]

By the time I got
off the streets

when I was about 17 or 18,
I had to turn to making things

because I basically
could never find a place

to ever express
what! had experienced.

r remember one or'
the most emotional experiences

was one day being picked up
by this guy who was very creepy

and I remember lying
on this dirty bed.

R was one ox' these
cheap hotels.

And this guy
was sucking my dick,

his mouth was sticky
and that he even kissed my leg

and there would be
like those gummy

kind ox' stuff on my leg.

And it was all the stuff
that I was really repulsed by

and not enough to not have
a hard on.

I remember feeling all this

incredible emotion
for this guy.

I just felt so sad for him.

At some point, L like,
reached under his arms,

and pulled him up to me,
and kissed him on the mouth,

which is the thing
that I least wanted to do.

He started weeping
and just said,

"Nobody's ever done that."
And ended up giving me

extra money whatever,
which I was quite happy with.

[police siren wailing]

[crowd chatter]

DAVID: It's like a whole
experience

living on the streets

when I ran away from home
of feeling the world's setup

in such a way that it seems
that I 'm constantly working

against it
rather than alongside.

[thunder rumbling]

DAVID: Most guys that I meet,

their lives are just
so completely different.

You know,
there's no real communication

where I can feel totally free
in expressing my ideas,

my desires,
and my experiences.

My experience
as a hustler seems to be

one thing that sits
on the back ox' my shoulder.

[horn honking]

FRAN LEBOWITZ: One thing that's
incredibly hard to convey

to people is the level
of promiscuity of that era.

This is something
that's realty hard

to describe to people younger.

We felt sex was good for you.

That what was bad for you
is not having sex.

And then what was bad tor you
is repression oi' sexuality,

that was bad.

This is before AIDS or before
we were aware of AIDS.

[firework explosion]

[man screams]

[police siren wailing]

[indistinct chatter]

RICHARD KERN: I grew up
in North Carolina.

And when t first moved
to the East Village--

MAN: Smoke, smoke.

RICHARD: --it was cliche things
you see in the movies

ox' drug-dealing places,
dealers standing around

selling coke and dope,
coke and dope, C&D, C&D.

[gunshot]

[glass breaks]

MAN: - real slow, brother.
I said real slow.

- I'll sell that bullshit.
- MAN: That is bullshit.

CARLO MCCORMICK: People forget
how much the rest

of America hated New York.

We were a bunch of junkies
and cocksuckers

as far as America
was concerned, and, you know,

there's a real sense
of cultural decline.

[music]

CARLO". There had been
this huge shift

between the kind of idea/isms
of the '60s

and the first
Civil Rights Movement,

the anti-war movement.

All these things
are derailed by the mid-70s.

And so we were responding
to that in different ways.

[crickets chirping]

DAVID: I walked up to the park,
and the streets

were completely empty,
and traffic was nonexistent.

I had opened up my pants

and I walked up
and down the pathways,

and there's just, like,
this realty quite

sort of loneliness there.

I mean it felt
like it was, like,

you're back
where it started from.

We been filled with this
sense

of, uh, of anxiousness,

and the fact that I'm 26,
I'm thinking about myself

and my values, my actions,
and thinking about the effect

ox' people on people,
wondering if any

ox' it's meaningful,
if it's fume,

frying to figure out what it is
that my life is,

and where We been going.

MAN: This is a man
whose time has come,

a man whose principles
have been familiar to Americans

for 30 years,
a man whose accomplishments

make him the natural choice

for president
of the United States.

RONALD REAGAN: We will make
America great again.

Thank you very much.

[applause]

DAVID: Reagan, as the president
of this country now,

going through a time in my life
that seems desperate,

surreal, awful, and slightly
wondrous all simultaneously.

Met a fellow a month
or so ago, Peter Hujar,

photographer who,
in some interesting ways,

is like a mirror
of scenes I 'm entering.

He has the same desperate
and at times confused outlook,

but minus the one seed
ox' hope that t have in me.

[music]

STEPHEN KOCH: The relationship
between Peter and David

is one oi' the most
interesting relationships

between artists
in a very long time.

More interesting than van Gogh
and Gauguin,

very, very special enemy.

[music]

CYNTHIA: When Peter
started his career

as a photographer
in the '50s,

it was not considered
a real art form.

His photographs
were mostly portraits,

mostly of people he knew,
but he did know

some rather famous people,
you know.

He's truly an artist,
but Peter was very difficult,

and in terms
m' having a career,

he was not very good at it.

FRAN".
These works were very small.

The New York Art World
fit in one restaurant.

One restaurant, okay?

I heard of Peter
before I met him.

The number ox' people
who would have heard of Peter,

you know, 12?

MAN: He may have been a saint
on Avenue A,

but it was underground fame.

He did not have
that standing in the quote,

“real art world.“
He was stranded.

Nothing was going nowhere.

PETER HUJAR: Howdy-do,
howdy-do.

This is Huprino again.

I was wondering ix' David's
steamed vegetable was there.

This is Peter fast juice.

[cars honk]

DAVID: Peter last night
in the bar when I told him

about doing a portfolio
and throwing out

all the drawings
so I thought we're -

very upsetting

told me not to throw out
any drawings

no matter what my taste is
and what my ideas are,

ix' I feel it's good enough,

there“ be somebody
who will pick up on it,

t shouldn't start compromising

and trying to adapt to
other people's taste.

And last night, I was standing
around here 5:00,

6:00 in the morning,
looking through the portfolio,

looking at my photographs.

t was realty startled,
it was like the fist time

that I sat down
and really looked at them

in ages since I did them.

And t realized
that they are good.

And that there's absolutely
no reason for me

to deny them or throw them
away, they're my life.

And t don't owe it to anybody
to distort that

just for their comfort.

CARLO". I think that everything
David thought an artist could

and should be was embodied
by Peter.

And Peter was the purest
of the tot.

[seagulls gawking]

[music]

STEVEN". Peter had tremendous
respect for anyone else

who had that same drive,
called them those people.

And those people were special.

He was a tough judge.

And when he discovered David,
he realized he's one of them.

This guy is one ox' them.

He's talented in a chaotic way.

And Peter saw right away
both the talent and the chaos.

[music]

[car honks]

FRAN: When Peter first met David
and talked about him,

t paid zero attention to Peter
about this. Zero.

I don't pay much attention
to people I was steeping with,

t don't know
why t should pay attention

to people that Peter
was steeping with.

t was under the impression
that he was a teenager

because he had that band
called, like,

4 Teens Kill 3
or 3 Teens Km 4,

which, of course,
We never heard of.

3 TEENS KILL 4: J" Give me all your bibles J"

J" give me all your money,
give me all your bibles J"

J" give me all your money J"

JESSE HULTBERG:
The story about 3 Teens

playing for the first time,
it has to do with Danceteria

being shut down for not having
a liquor license.

Dave and I were busboys
at Danceteria.

We worked together.

R was an interesting crowd
ox' people.

Keith Haring
was a busboy there too,

and Madonna was hanging out.

BRIAN BUTTERICK: They advertised
having a full bar

until 8:00 in the morning.

m the time, mind you,
totally a mob operation.

3 TEENS KILL 4: J" This is a hold up, hold up J"

J" hold up, hold up - J"

[siren blaring]

BRIAN: We were raided,
and a bunch of us went to jail.

David escaped.

And then he had concocted
a Molotov cocktail

apparently when they pulled up
the police vehicle.

[music]

BRIAN: But we couldn't
figure out how to do it

without, you know,
hurting people.

JESSE: We'd spent a night
in jail

and then gtamorized that event,
you know, we put on a show.

BRIAN: Now, l don't know
why we felt we needed a benefit

for funds because the mob
paid for fucking lawyers

so that our case is dismissed.

[music]

[music]

MAN: Jerry?

A time more volume
on the drums.

BRIAN: And anyway
we had a benefit

that we threw together
as 3 Teens Kit! 4.

MAN". Uno, dos, tres, quatro.

J" - see the man twisted J"

J" Really, really, really,
really, really J"

J" Really, really, really - J"

BRIAN: But after we played
the first gig,

Jesse and I and David
wanted to continue it.

JULIE HAIR: I knew
their drummer had fallen out.

t went and bought
a rhythm machine

because I didn't know
how to play anything.

I thought,
“Well, I can push buttons,

so I did that.“

JESSE". t don't think any ox' us
were very proficient,

but it wasn't really the point.

R was an effort to not
really necessarily make music,

but to have a film almost
for your ears.

[music]

JESSE. We ended up calling it
the Cacophonic Barrage.

[boat honks]

JESSE". As opposed to music.

JULIE: We were really ahead
of our time

with the music samples, and
that was David's instrument.

CARLO". David would come up
to a mic with his handheld

tape recorder and blast sounds.

MAN: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yes. Because ox' the guns
and the grenade,

a great equalizer that used
to be something

to a revolver and made all men
six feet tall.

JULIE: I heard a rumor
that Frank Zappa

was in the audience one time
when we played,

and he said that we used
the tapes like lead guitar,

which I thought
was a great comment.

REVEREND JIMMY SWAGGART:
There was a time in America,

that ix' a, “glory hole“
appears,

the police would throw them

in }ail on morals' charges.

Limp-wristed sissies.

[music]

JULIE: David wasn't really
of the art world.

At that point in time,
he was just an individual

that was doing his thing.

He used to come over
to my house to make art

because there was more room
in my house than in his house,

which is funny, because t had
a tiny East Village apartment

with a bathtub and a kitchen,
and a toilet in the hallway.

We would get on the floor
and make stencils,

and posters for the band.

[music]

DAVID: We made fall posters,
put them up in the street

most of them are -

So we started thinking
about more permanent things,

the most certain thing
out in the street.

- Images around the -
at the street.

[music]

DAVID: But I didn't
have any intention

ox' being a street artist.

I was just being provocative.

MAN". Ready on the firing line.

DAVID: Every night,
I went downtown,

did every gallery door
I could find with images

ox' the burning house,
the plane, and the figure.

R was an aggressive thing.

This idea of New York City
streets filled with soldiers,

that kind ox' tense atmosphere.

MAN: Halt, left flank, halt.

[plane whirring]

[gunshot]

[music]

CARLO". I was this rabid fan
ox' David.

He was pretty obscure
at that time.

But I knew about the piece him
and Julie Hair did

on the Leo Castelli building,

the shrine to contemporary art
at that time.

DAVID: Julie and I wanted to do
a series

of action installations,
which were basically

uninvited installations.

We wanted to open up
what culture was to us

as opposed to what was handled
by rich white people.

JULIE: I don't really remember
any planning stages of this,

but we went to the west side

where all the butchers were.

FRAN: The Meatpacking District,
which used to be

a Meatpacking District,
you would never wanna go there

because of the smell of blood

from the actually butchering
and packing meat.

JULIE: There were big cans
outside of the butchers'

with giant cow bones in them.

So, we've got a bunch ox' bones,

we put them
in this little wagon.

DAVID: We brought
a couple hundred pounds

ox' bloody cow bones,
dumped them into the staircase.

Did a stencil painting with
spray paint ox' the empty plate,

a knife, and a fork.

MAN". Left, right, halt.

DAVID:
And then military bombers,

houses, and planes,

and figures
recoiling on the wall,

and then left.

CARLO". They stenciled
the despair ox' New York

at that time,
and then they poured gallons

and gallons of cow's blood
down the stairs.

DAVID: Nobody seemed to think
anything was amiss.

They had thought it was just
part ox' the art world.

[music]

MAN". Left, right, halt.

[music]

DAVID: Six months later,

I was still doing stuff
on the street.

That's when somebody
approached me

from one ox' the galleries,

asked me ix' I wanted to put
a painting

in one of the shows,
so I said sure.

[music]

CYNTHIA: David ends up
in a show with people

like Julian Schnabel
and David Hockney,

and lots of people
who were famous.

He was completely unknown.

[siren blaring]

ALAN BARROWS: A lot of artists
were doing graffiti

in the East Village.
Keith Haring and Basquiat,

and David was doing it.

SUR RODNEY SUR: There were
no resources like now.

You can go down
to the Lower East Side

and there's like a dozen
young galleries

you've never heard
ox' that are showing style.

There was nothing.

There was SoHo,
and there was uptown,

and there were
these established galleries.

ALAN: We didn't fee!
we had any entree into there

so we created space so we could
show our work and have fun.

[music]

ALAN: Dean Savard and I
started the gallery

through a series
ox' one-night parties.

There was no real intention
oi' making any money.

We would put the art up
for one night,

we invite friends
and sat around on the floor

drinking beer and smoking pot,
talking about art.

GRACIE MANSION: When my gallery
first started,

it had gotten t think
$200 back from my taxes.

And t thought, oh,
let's have a party.

I had photographs
in my bathroom

and my bathroom was a toilet
and three walls

because
the bathtub was in the kitchen.

Never did t think that anybody
would show up after the party.

ALAN: Eventually
we decided that, 0h,

we'll leave the art up
for a little longer.

We were really drawn to David's
militaristic imagery.

We decided that we would
put them into a group show.

We put this realty
large painting that David did.

It was one of the most unusual
things I had seen an artist do

expressing what was going on
around us at the time,

where mankind stood
at that point

where self-annihilation
could occur.

We were actually trying
to sell the work.

Pm trying to remember
how much we were asking for it.

I think probably around $5,000.

Ox' course we didn't sell it
because nobody was coming

into the gallery with that kind
ox' money back then.

SUR: The interesting thing
about the East Village,

so when there were artists
that were realty

kind ox' special,
everybody knew about it

or there'd be this buzz
about it.

So, there was a time bit
of buzz about David.

GRACIE: He had that book,
Sounds in the Distance,

which came out.

And I was so impressed
because on the back

il had Blur
by William Burroughs.

And I was like, oh, my God,
this artist

must be really incredible
because William Burroughs

wrote something about it.

When we did the Famous Show,
which was in '82,

we were looking for portraits
ox' famous people

by famous
and soon to be famous artists.

David brought in this painting,
Peter Hujar

Dreaming about Yukio Mishima
in Saint Sebastian

at the last minute
after everything

was already up in the wall.

- SUR". Typical.
- GRACE". Typical.

SUR". There was like no space

because there were
so many people

and he had a really big piece.

So, where are you gonna put
a really big piece?

You hang it from the ceiling.

GRACIE: That's why
I love this photograph

ox' the opening where you can't
realty see any ox' the art

but you can see David's piece
because it's on the ceiling.

[laughs]

DAVID: The early images
were all simple images.

But t just wanted
to record things

that! (MM see
people recording

and painting at that time.

You know, I wanted to record
my own history

or different history.

And that's what painting
originally was for me.

All the paintings are diaries
that I always thought

as prom' ox' my own existence.

[music]

[music]

MAN". Welcome 3 Teens Kill 4.

[cheers and applause]

MAN: - Reagan. White House
confirmed a short time later

that the President
had indeed been shot.

The President was shot
once in the left chest.

The bullet
entered from the left side.

He is in stable condition.

Mrs. Reagan
rushed to the hospital

and the President
jokingly told her,

“Honey, I forgot to duck.“

DOUG BRESSLER: 1 think
he misconstrued

that one is celebrating
Reagan's assassination attempt.

R's media critique.

MAN: He was wheeled
into surgery and he quipped

to the doctors, “! hope
you're all Republicans.“

We are all
essential laborers J"

J" Laborers, laborers J"

MAN: 3 Teens Kill 4
had a song called Hunger

which was the underclass
and disparity

ox' wealth in this country.

J" I see these things
every day J"

3 TEENS KILL 4: J" Every day, every day J"

J" Television candidates
with singular vision J"

3 TEENS KILL 4: Vision,
vision, vision, vision J"

J" Grey images
of freezing homes J"

3 TEENS KILL 4:
♪ Homes, homes, homes, homes ♪

J" People combing through
garbage reefs J"

3 TEENS KILL 4: J" Garbage reefs,
garbage reefs J"

J" S0 we continue,
so we consume J"

3 TEENS KILL 43 ♪ S0 We
continue, so we consume J"

J" S0 we continue,
so we consume J"

3 TEENS KILL 43 ♪ S0 We
continue, so we consume J"

DAVID: last night,
I ran into Brian and Jesse,

discovered them to be
in a big discussion

about the politics m' clubs
and politics ox' dance.

They just did not wanna
hear it.

When you're trying to do
a fucking job

and support yourself
and be able to do things

that you feet realty important.

JESSE. There were lots
of different reasons

why he wanted to leave the
band.

He wanted to do painting.

He wanted to have more control
over whatever he was doing.

r remember having an argument
with David.

He said to me,
“I can'! really be friends

with someone who doesn't like
what I do artistically"

I said, “Well, David.

There's a lot of your art
that! don't like

and there's a lot of that anger
that! don't relate to

and don't necessarily
would wanna collaborate with.“

DAVID: Hi.
This is Helen of Troy

calling from Poughkeepsie.

Oh, I got you on that one.
Ha-ha. Good-bye.

[music]

MAN: Hi. This is -

- DAVID: Why?
- DIRK ROWNTREEI David

came over to our place
early one morning.

He said, “You guys
got to come to this huge pier

with all these walls
and there's nobody there."

We had to slip
under a chain-link fence,

got into the building,
and it was really impressive,

remarkable space,
for years been abandoned

like a couple football fields
in size.

The idea was for artists

to make work there
surreptitiously.

R was very adventurous
and illegal.

CARLO". And that was very much
connected

to David's knowledge
ox' the piers

as a place for sexual tryst
and that whole subculture

around it in a way
they kind ox' spoiled that spot.

And we can'! go there
for their acts anymore

because there are too many
people traipsing through.

KIKI SMITH: The ground floor
was thousands of square feet

with very high ceilings.

And upstairs there were rooms.

David and I found

piles ox' discarded files

and psychological evaluations
from Bellevue.

[music]

KIKI: They had them draw
pictures of men and women

and, yeah, most were
very, very loose, you know.

R's like how you drew

in elementary school
or something like that.

And then others were sort of
more you would say like

in quote "sophisticated,"
or this and that.

But they were very emotional

and had a great deal
of resonance in them.

Hi. David, {his is Kiki.

I think you've got my squeegee

for silkscreening
and I need it.

Okay. Bye-bye-

So, I was doing
a lot ox' silkscreening then

and I taught him
how to make silkscreens.

So we decided
to use these images

and make a collaboration.

MARION SCEMAMA:
The first time I met David,

it wasn't physically.

H was more mind to mind,
like vibration.

R was summer '83.

I wasn't involved
in the art scene.

But one day,
there's a French photographer

who came to visit New York
and he said,

“Did you hear about
the abandoned pier

where all these artists go

and paint on the walls
and do things?“

And I said, “No?

He took me there.

I fell in love with that place,
you know.

R was like
so deathly romantic.

One day somebody told me
the story of this artist,

David Wojnarowicz,
who opened the place.

And I remember right away
I had a crush on this guy.

I thought this guy
must really be great, you know,

to open a place like that,

to call people to come
and collaborate and paint.

For me, he was already
somebody special.

CARLO". in the end, you know,
hundreds of artists

were doing things there
and French fashion magazines

were doing shoots in there.

ANDREAS STERZING:
It got so big that police came.

They closed it down.

The whole magic was lost.

They started tearing it down

and I have a picture
ox' the Gagging Cow ox' David's

while it appears
being pulled down.

And then the pier disappeared
into the river and was gone.

t think the East Village scene
exploded at the same time.

ALAN". “wasn't until after he had
his first solo exhibition for us

that everything broke loose.

The first exhibition
was very interesting

in a sense
that it was something

nobody had really seen before,

painting things
that weren't realty intended

to be painted on.

He'd stencil images
over supermarket posters,

trashcan lids, driftwood.

Everything was about
something that was found

and didn't cost anything
because, again,

nobody had any money.

It was that exhibition
that Grace Glueck,

the New York Times art critic
rode up on her bicycle,

started looking
into the artwork,

asking us about the artist

and asked for a photograph
ox' one ox' David's pieces.

DAVID: Grace Glueck showed up
and was really -

that she wanted
to write something.

And so for us,
it was very tongue-in-cheek

you know, did the very
serious interviews.

And she went around - hours

at Gracie's
and suddenly boom.

ALAN: An article appeared
in the Sunday Lifestyle section

of the New York Times.

lt talked about the galleries
in the East Village,

David's artwork.

It was after
that the collectors

really started coming down.

This limousine pulls up
in front ox' our little gritty

drug-infested street.

Robert Pincus-Witten, who was
an art critic in New York,

and a very elegant woman,

comes in at the gallery

and baked at
each piece examining.

Robert's whispering
in her ear.

Soon after he said,
"We'll take this one,

this one, this one,
and this one.

We'll take that one over there.

And it was like, oh, my God.

I practically
ran over to the pier

and then David and Dean
were having a beer.

1 said, “Oh, my God.
We sold so much work.“

R was such a euphoric feeling.

CARLO". All ox' a sudden,
the art worlds gave

this East Village scene
its 15 minutes' fame.

Our neighborhood
now all of a sudden

had 60 galleries in it

and that people were coming
by in limousines.

MAN". “Fuck You Faggot Fucker.“

We were going
around the gallery

putting the names on these
time stickers on the wall.

“And what's the name
of this one?“

And David said,
“Fuck You Faggot Fucker.“

It's a piece of torn paper
that David found on the street

that somebody had written
this homophobic slur on.

And I said,
"David, that's so offensive.

Do we have to call it that?“

David was like, “That's
the name that's gonna stick.“

BARRY BLINDERMAN:
"Fuck Faggot Fucker."

I walked in and the painting
just riveted me.

R's Mo boys kissing
over a map.

And then on the Your comers,

there is Brian Butterick
posing as Saint Sebastian

and there was David
posing in the Christodora.

I said,
"I'll give you $3,000. "

And he said, “Sure.”

Back then 1984,
that was a tot ox' money.

But it's been a prized
possession since then.

MARISSA:
Hi, David. It's Marissa.

Prison Rape is Back.

R just walked in the door
from Montreal.

So could you come and pick
it up as soon as possible?

Thank you. Bye-bye.

MAN: I think a lot of the reason
David is important now

is because people recognized

emergent queer sensibility
in David.

“Fm not gay
as in I love you.

I'm queer as in fuck off."

MARION: Everything I did
with David was collaboration.

But the concept ox' it
has always been David.

He proposed to make a poster
about being queer in America.

David knew a place
under the Brooklyn Bridge.

We went there with a truck.

I put some blood
on David's face.

It will lead to a scene
with the lights of the truck

and we took the photo.

When I went to the darkroom

and t started printing
the photo, it scared me.

R really scared me
to see this image ox' David

beat up
coming under the chemicals.

R looked so real.

DAVID: A number of months ago,

I read in the newspaper
that there was

a Supreme Court ruling

which states
that homosexuals in America

have no constitutional rights

against the government's
invasion oi' their privacy.

The paper stated only people
who are heterosexual,

or married, or have families

can expect
these constitutional rights.

And realizing I got nothing
left to lose in my actions,

I let my hands become weapons,
my teeth become weapons,

every bone,
and muscle, and fiber,

and ounce ox' blood
because weapons,

and I feel prepared
for the rest ox' my life.

GRACE". Hi, David, it's Gracie.

Can you give me a call at home?

About the Whitney.

'85 was a big year.

David had two major pieces
in the Whitney Biennial.

I mean, that's amazing.

Everything happened
really fast.

Hi, I want to make sure
somebody told you

you made the front page
ox' the Washington Post

on Sunday with the Biennial.

A big reproduction
of your piece, bye-bye.

It was major for all ox' us
to be accepted

in the bigger art world

bu! David wasn't, like,

“Oh, my God, I got
into the Whitney Biennial.“

- Not at all.
- MAN: N0.

GRACIE. No, I mean,
he really thought about

whether he wanted to do it.

MAN: David has a certain
kind of political consciousness

that plays into his work,
who owns it,

where it's shown,
the whole thing.

He was not
particularly thrilled

about a bunch oi' rich money
capitalist people

in the Whitney
thinking that he was great.

There's no gratification
for that in him

and those people are very
classist and judgmental,

he wanted
to be recognized by people

that would appreciate his work,

but the right people
for the right reasons.

You know, Peter Hujar
had a tot of the same attitude.

MAN: Yeah, that's
the only good reason, like,

that there's art stars,
which are people

who make tremendous
amounts ox' money or whatnot.

MAN: I agree.

MAN". That's good. I mean,

it's like they turned
into - manufacturers.

- There's--
- MAN: Yeah, I got--

MAN". --nothing human about it.

There's no hope,
and there's no -

WOMAN: Hey David, did you know
you're in New York Magazine?

They did a review
at the Biennial

and they reproduced your piece

but I also wanted to talk
to you about the Mnuchin.

Okay bye-bye-

WOMAN: Adrian and Robert Mnuchin
were two collectors.

He was on Wall Street
and she had a cashmere store

and her name was Adrian.

Now it's like Adriana
or something.

But anyway,
at that time she was Adrian.

They commissioned David
and it was the most money

that David had ever gotten
tor anything to do

this big installation
in their basement.

He needed the money
so he was glad

that t had made this sate
but a part ox' him

really was very unhappy
about it.

David didn't really like
rich people.

S0 he took all this garbage
off of the street

and put it
into the installation.

CARLO: They were scouring
all the vacant lots

to grab the nastiest shit
they could.

You know, it looked like
the plague had descended

upon their place,
basically filled it with trash

and made a beautiful
installation out of it

but so much ox' it
just looked like tetanus.

WOMAN". And it had bugs.

Adrian was like freaked out

these bugs were being brought

into her pristine brownstone.

Ox' course David loved it,
he brought in more.

GRACE". David, hi, it's Gracie.

I 'm just checking in,
seeing how everything 's

going with the installation,

if you need any help,
and what's up?

Basically just
a what's up call.

Um, okay.

I wanted to talk to you,
okay, bye-bye.

WOMAN: S0 when you look at
the photographs Peter Huja

took ox' that installation,
it was all garbage,

it was great like
a lot ox' figures.

There was the burning child

and there was the big mural
in the background,

there was a tree
and a lot of cow skulls.

R was an incredible
installation.

MAN: Well, in retrospect,
that was Mnuchin.

The A-hole dealer
whose son Steve Mnuchin

is part ox' Trump's cabinet.

I got really angry
of that sudden attention,

- money being thrown at me.
- MAN". Yeah.

DAVID: I was starving
for years though here.

And then it suddenly
cross a line where what I make

is feeding me, is--
it's giving me all this stuff

but then I have all this hate
about the structure of that

- because it's so full of shit.
- MAN". Yeah.

DAVID: And this is something
that rattled me.

I realized that
I came out ox' a totally violent

fucked-up background
growing up as a kid,

came to New York,
went out to the streets,

almost died on the streets,

but once you're economics
are taken care of,

once you don't no longer
have to struggle,

pay rent or eat,
any shit that's underneath

goes to the surface.

PM". Hi Dave, this is Pat.

I don't know ix' you're home
or maybe you're sleeping,

well, the first thing
I wanna say

is that your paintings
are fantastic.

I 'm so impressed,
I'm so proud of you,

t tried to take pictures
but they wouldn't

let me use the flash and I...

STEVEN: Patty
was always close to David.

PAT: I love you a lot, bye.

STEVEN". Even after we grew up,
we were completely split up.

So the first time r ever
learned about his artwork,

I picked up some magazines

and there was David
in Life Magazine.

I was so much in awe with--
I was like,

“Wow, look where this guy
is at,“ you know.

I finally found a way
to get in touch with him,

it was an interesting thing
to sit down with him,

I came in New York
and he started spewing m'?

about he was
a child prostitute, he's gay.

And t get the feeling
that he was testing me.

I think he was afraid

that I would never accept him
being gay.

I just was glad
that he was okay.

David, this is Sieve calling,

I don't know if you need maps
for your artwork

but t just threw out
about 5,000 ox' them today.

I worked for AAA
so he had free maps

whenever he needed them,
Yd make sure he got them.

Maybe I can save you
some money.

Okay. Bye-bye-

RICHARD: Hey David,
this is Richard, you know,

I just wanted to get together
with you and talk about

making a movie
or something like that.

I'm up, give me a buzz, bye.

R was one ox' those nights

David and I
wanted to get high.

I said, “Hey, why don't we
try shooting ecstasy?

We got some ox' that.“

David and I got into this deep,
deep conversation, I said,

“Let's make a movie
where we try to figure out

why young people
are the way they are,

the punks and all that stuff,
and just shot a quick movie."

I think we did it in a day.

David played the father,
Karen Finley played the mother,

it ended up being
a lot ox' things

from David's childhood
and he definitely had

the most fucked-up stories.

- Don't get away--
- Stop playing with your food.

Do you call this food'?

Look, it isn't even fucking
cooked, it's all bloody.

Shut up.

RICHARD: David said that
when he was a kid,

they had a rabbit.

STEVEN:
My father got us rabbits

and he said
he gave away the rabbits

and then Patty
found out somehow

that he had them butchered
and we winded up

eating our pet rabbit
which I think was horrific.

And it really
bothered David too.

- You know what this is'?
- N0.

See that'?

That's my bunny,
what are doing to it'?

And you know what this is'?

N0, no, no.

CYNTHIA: David finally
was starting to deal

with what had happened to him
during his childhood.

He started using heroin.

lt was almost a social drug
in the East Village.

DAVID: I got so drunk
that I 'm Wing around,

so I did it in the bathroom.

The light and everything just
started making me feel sick.

STEPHEN KOCH:
David took drugs in a way

that Peter was sure
would destroy him.

And Peter knew too much
about the way artists

can sabotage themselves
to let them,

go one step further.

At some point, Peter said,

“David, what are those marks
on your arm?“

He said, “Oh, it's nothing.“

He said,
"Don't tell me it's nothing

and you're going to stop
taking heroin today, right now.

You will never take it again
as long as you live

and if you do, I will
never speak to you again,

you will be dead to me.“

FRAN: David started crying
and he'd stopped heroin.

He never took it again
because Peter was the most

important relationship
in his life.

They first had an affair

but t don't think
that tasted that tong.

And then they were friends
but at a certain point,

I really thought of David
as Peter's son.

Peter didn't think ox' him
as Peter's son

and probably David didn't
bu! to me,

that's what it seemed tike.

TOM RAUFFENBART: I met David
at the Bijou Theater

which was a gay pom theater.

Our eyes met and we went
to the bathroom

and had a little bit of sex
and I said,

“Why don't you come over
to my apartment?“

Which I rarely did with people
ma! I me! mere,

but I was just fascinated
with this guy.

We left and I asked David
what he did and he said

he was a painter and I said,

“What, ox' houses?“
And he said,

“No, no, no, no,
I paint things.“

And apparently
he was quite well-known

in the East Village
and I didn't know who he was,

I had no idea.

So he came over and we had
a really sweet night.

He left me a little painting

that he did tor me
that t realty loved.

And we started
seeing each other.

I thought my world was very
different after I met David.

I was totally swept up
with him.

But here I am, heading out
into the cold winds

ox' the canyon streets,
walking down and across

Avenue C towards my home,

with the smelt
and the taste of him

wrapped around my neck and jaw
like some scarf.

And how it follows me
in and out of restaurants

and past cops,
and early morning children,

and passed bakery windows
filled with brides and grooms

on rows, and rows, and rows,
and endless wedding cakes.

PETER: Hey juicy lips,
are you there?

It's about 12:00..

MAN: David kept talking
about this best friend of his

that he had in the East Village
and we had to go see him,

and his name was Peter
and men Peter,

and a}! of a sudden I said,

“Are you talking about
Peter Hujar?“

And he said,
“Well, how did you know that?“

PETER". Howdy do, howdy do?

MAN: I said, "Well,
I had a little affair

in the '70s with Peter
for a month,"

and I kept thinking,
“Oh, great,

Peter's gonna tell him
I'm an asshole."

But Peter thought actually
that t was good tor David,

you know,
that I could help David,

t could be a settling
kind ox' thing tor him

which absolutely
probably is true.

But they were so close
that it was--

I couldn't even describe
what ma! was,

much different
than our relationship

and I was just
trying to figure out

where I fit in his life.

He said,
“I have three priorities,

in this order, Peter,
my art, and you.“

And I had to find
that to be okay,

it was hard at first
but as I looked at it,

I realized
there was no threat there.

This was a whole other thing.

[crowd cheering]

CARLO: Hi David,
this is Carlo

wishing you a Happy New Year.

BRIDGETTE: Hi David,
this is Bridgette,

I wanted to wish you
Happy New Year.

MAN". Howdy do, howdy do?

R's the nufter.

And the monks last night
were great,

you would've actually
loved them.

I think there were 10 of them

and they sang in voices
ma! was like, "Whoa."

You know, deeper than that.

“Oh, uh.“ No, I can'! do R.

"Oh, hmm, uh. "

R was really nice,

they did a healing ceremony.

Well, anyway, that's all
I have to say, goodbye.

F RAN : I took Peter to the doctor.

r don't remember
what was wrong with Peter

or how Peter left
that made him have that test.

They didn't tell you there.

R took Mo weeks
for this test to come back.

And r remember very much
ma! Peter called me,

and I can'! describe to you.

I said, "When-how?"
And he goes, "Fran,"

and then he made the sound
like, um, like a--

not a scream
but kind of a scream.

R more sounded to me
like an animal sound,

not like a human.

He said his test
came back positive.

DAVID: When Peter
was diagnosed with AIDS,

I came over 10 minutes later.

He went to meet me at the door

and there was some
mail letter arrived

and it fell on the floor
and I remember picking it up

and turned to him
just to saying,

even something like
getting a piece ox' mail

has an entirely
different meaning.

And from that,
t constructed something

ox' what this man is facing.

And I left very sad.

I felt angry. I felt fear.

I felt the possibility
oi' my own diagnosis.

TOM". David was sitting
at the table

and he was crying
and I didn't know

what was going on
and he told me

that Peter
had been diagnosed with AIDS.

He was destroyed.

I mean,
it was so emotional for him.

R was so upsetting.

ANITA VITALE:
When Peter was diagnosed,

David asked me
ix' I could help him

because Peter
really had no income.

He had no money.
He had no--he had nothing

and he didn't wanna lose
his apartment.

I worked as Director of
New York City's AIDS Program.

And it was through Tom
that t met David.

This was an epidemic
or' great proportions.

And the city ignored it
tor quite a white.

m fact, everyone ignored it.

People with AIDS
who were getting sick

and losing their jobs,
were coming to apply

for public assistance
because AIDS

had a stigma already
none of the traditional systems

and place wanted anything
to do with them.

The staff wouldn't touch
their paperwork.

They often died before
they got any benefits at all.

Mayor Koch finally decided that
something needed to be done.

He started a very little
program and r have to say,

we probably broke every rule
in the book

in order to get people
what they needed.

So I went over
like a good caseworker,

and I fell in love with him.

I mean,
he was an amazing person.

I could certainly ease
a lot of his fears,

he couldn't believe that
he wouldn't lose his apartment

and he'd have
some kind of income.

PETER". Hippity-hoppity
happy Easter eggs.

This is Peter Cottontail.

This is the
ex-Peter Cottontail.

Are you there?

Hello? Howdy do?

ANITA: Peter was prone
to great depression,

I mean, he never took a photo
after his diagnosis.

He gave it up entirely.

DAVID: A couple of times,
I did confront him

because I thought he was stuck.

And that was the only time
I allowed myself

to confront him
when t thought that he was just

shutting down
and so full ox' rage

and not strong enough
to express it.

And I remember him
threatening to throw himself

in front of a car
because he was mad.

And he didn't have the strength
to walk to the curb

and throw himself
in front of the car.

He talked about killing himself
endlessly brutally.

t wanna go to that building
across the street

and jump off the roof
and he would say,

"I'm gonna do it.
I'm gonna do it. "

And he would say it every day
until one day we gave him

a number of a doctor
who would give medicine

lo kill himself.

And once I gave him the number,

he tucked it away
and never spoke

about killing himself again.

GRACE".
David had like a huge career,

then when I did
The Four Elements,

we didn't sell a thing.
R was over.

SUR RODNEY SUR: The art world
it very tickle like that.

Once you start in getting
a certain amount oi' something,

you have to keep it going,
or it fizzles out.

t had this naive sense
that once people supported work

then, that doesn't
just disappear that, you know;

that they'll watch what you do

and they'll take interest
and they'll follow it,

which isn't the case at all.

CYNTHIA: It was the end
of the East Village scene

and the so-catted
East Village art

had just gone out ox' style.

- [phone beeps]
- PETER: Hi, this is Hujar.

I'm on my way
to the horse pistol

to stay there for a while.

I guess you can find my number
by calling Cabrini Hospital.

Goodbye.

WOMAN: He lost weight.

He had the beginnings
of dementia.

He just was kind of
fading away.

DAVID: I'm sitting
in this hospital room

so high up in the upper
reaches ox' the building

and leaning against the glass
to the window oi' his room

where I can see dizzily down
into the street.

It's a gradual turn of
the Earth outside the windows.

I wonder what it is to fall
such distances.

I'm afield he's really dying.

And he barely opens his eyes
for more than a few seconds.

And his breath was coming

in rapid fire bursts
like machine gun.

A tum from the silence
in the window and look at him

and an iris appears
beneath one-half lifted eyelid

and its strength bores
right through me.

And I turned away
almost embarrassed

having as much life in me
as he has.

- MAN: Stand up and fight.
- MAN: Okay.

- MAN: Stand up and fight.
- MAN: Okay.

WOMAN: It was Thanksgiving
and I met David

in Peter's room
at the hospital.

Ethyl Eichelberger was there
and Peter was in a coma.

I mean, he really
wasn't responsive

in any kind ox' way.

We're all sitting there
and Ethyl says very quietly,

“He's not breathing anymore.

His chest
isn't going up and down.“

We called the nurse in.

And the nurse said,
“Yes, he had passed.“

And then David says,

“Could you all
leave me alone with him?“

DAVID: If I could attach
our blood vessels

so that we would become
each other, I would.

If! could attach
our blood vessels

in order to anchor you
to the Earth

to this present time to me,
I would.

R makes me weep
to feel the history m' you,

ox' your flesh beneath my hands

in a time of so much loss.

R makes me weep
all these moments

will be lost in time
like tears in rain.

Smell the flowers
while you can.

TOM". When Peter died,
I went out to dinner with Anita

and this nurse,
he was talking about,

sometimes you could tell
somebody was infected

because they'd get
a String ox' Pearls

along your neck which was--
glands would smell up.

S0 while I'm sitting there,

running the fingers down
my neck and sure enough

I have a String ox' Pearls,
swollen glands.

I decided to get tested.

R came back positive.

t had pretty good T cell
at that point.

I wasn't sick or anything.

David, he was very sympathetic
and very supportive

but then at some point,
I said,

“You know,
you're being very supportive,

but you don't know
your status.“

DR. BOB FRIEDMAN:
The first time I savv David,

David had markers of infection,

ore! candidiasis, thrush.

Even have a competent
immune system.

I don't think this came
as a shock to David.

DAVID: Hi, I just woke up.

Waking up every hour

for the last,

I don't know,
three or four hours.

So I was diagnosed with ARC

sometime in the summer.

Now near the end of November,

I'm living at Peter's house,
Peter Hujar,

because t couldn't afford
the other apartment that t had.

TOM". David came back positive

but his T cells
were really ravaged.

David asked Dr. Friedman,

“Do! have so few
that! can name them?“

DR. BOB: Back then,
the magic number

was 200 T cells.

If you could keep the patient
at 200 T cells or higher,

they'd be less
opportunistic infections.

TOM: He had less than a hundred
when he was tested

so he was already in bad shape.

- [phone beeps]
- GRACIE: Peter, hi.

R's-oh, Peter, oh, my God.

I'm looking at the name,
what a...

unbelievable
psychological slur.

This is Gracie calling
for David.

He came in to the gallery
and told us.

He was very quiet about it.

t mean, he came in and he said
that he'd just been tested

and he found out
that he had it.

R was devastating for me.

I mean, I felt very protective
ox' David.

When Keith Haring came out
about having AIDS,

it just seemed like
everybody had to run,

buy something ox' his because
he was gonna die ox' AIDS.

He had AIDS
and he was gonna die.

It was so gross
how Keith was treated

and how everything around him,
what that was all about,

and I didn't want that
for David.

I mean,
I knew how private David was

and so when he told me,
my first reaction was,

that we shouldn't tell anyone.

Which ox' course
is the wrong response

to have with David.

That's when I picked up
the phone

and called Barry Blinderman
and said,

“You have to do this
retrospective now,

like, now.“

[engine turbine whirring]

BARRY: He was right
and that this is what I do,

books and retrospectives
and...

that I was an avid fan
of his work.

I bought the painting,
Fuck You Faggot Fucker,

back in 1984.

There was an urgency
to do the show

while he was alive.

I wrote a grant to the NEA,

got the grant worth $ 15,000

and started working with David
planning the exhibition,

then the catalog.

t thought the phrase
“Tongues ox' Flame“

was very appropriate.
There's a biblical reference.

R's a reference to a play.
R's a reference

to a silent movie.

But mostly Tongues of Flame,

I'm thinking what a--
an amazing orator he was.

t was thinking
about the Burning Child,

t was thinking
about the Burning House,

the incendiary aspect ox' it,
the passion.

And it just seemed like
everything that was connected

with David was on fire.

[music]

DAVID: One of the things
that happened

after my diagnosis
is this thing

ox' this may be the last work
I do. So it's, like,

trying to focus everything
and channel it into the square,

into this photograph,
or into this thing

that it's all got to go in,
all the anger,

all the emotions,
all the thoughts.

I'm working on a series
of sex images

that take environments
like the sky,

the ocean, an airplane,

train movements, a forest,

and my superimposed,

a circle that has
a very explicit sex act.

And most of them
are homosexual acts.

[music]

DAVID:
Outside of the sex series,

I placed these circular images
inside the field of painting

and so for me the circles
are like cells

and they contain information.

And I see them
as microscopic views

so it's like looking
into the interior ox' something,

like looking at a spot of blood
and seeing the cells.

And I also see them
as telescopic view

so that you could be looking
through a telescope

and then that says something
to me about surveillance,

seeing something
from a distance.

I like the suggestions
of all those things.

R's about discovery.

And I use dreams in my work.

Dreams are very important
to me.

I usually write them down
all the time.

The dreams are example
oi' how the imagination

can bring all boundaries.

MAN".
His iconography is based off

this profound sense he had
that he could fry

to look at the universe.

Everything organic,

and everything manmade,

all the delights,
and all the horrors,

and trying to put them
together.

But every aspect of it
would be deeply personal.

DAVID KIEHL: When Peter died,

David took photographs
of the head,

the hands, and the feet.

There's a tradition
ox' taking death masks

ox' someone important.

Hands are important
because they're how

you physically interact
with the world.

And then the feet,
t think are very important.

And that goes back
to the Old Testament

and the New Testament.

How do you read people,
you watch their hands

but it's more important
you watch their feet

because that's what
anchoring you to the world.

And he find that all that
all the way through

classic spiritual literature.

That iconic letting out
ox' those images,

incorporating them into Peter
who's our dead

with that text
is really a call to arms.

DAVID: I was diagnosed with ARC
recently

and this is after
the last few years

of losing count of the friends
and neighbors

who've been dying slow, vicious,
unnecessary deaths

because fags, and dykes,
and junkies

are expendable in this country.
And at the moment,

at the moment
of my 37-foot tall,

1,172-p0und man
inside this six-foot body,

and all I could feel
is the pressure.

All I can feel is the pressure
and the need for relief.

PAT: David? R's Pat.

R's been too long
and I want you to know

that I think of you
and I love you a lot,

and I hope all is well.

DAVID: Last night
I talked to my sister

for the first time
in seven months I think.

I told her about my diagnosis
and...

it was rough for me anyway.

I thought she handled it
pretty well.

But then who knows.

I remember Pa! once say to me,

she will never get AIDS
or something like that because,

“Fm not one of those people
that ran around

to have sex with everybody.“

Then I remember
I didn't correct her.

[chuckles]

I mean, how do you begin?

STEVEN". Dave, are you home?

R's Steve calling again.

OKAY'

BYE-bye.

After he had AIDS,
we were fine

but there came that day
when t catted him on the phone

when I told him our Aunt Helen
was coming to visit.

Boy that set him oft.

DAVID: Look, if it comes out
whether about my girlfriend

or we have girlfriends,

I 'm gonna tell him
I 'm homosexual.

And if it comes up,
H! tell him

that t have this virus.

h' it goes far enough,
H! fucking confront him

and ask him why the fuck
they let the psychotic

do this damage to us
all these fucking years

and-and not do
a fucking thing about it,

and like talk about their God
and all this other shit

when they watched this guy
what he did to us.

I'm tired of living these hes
with these people

and I'm tired of hiding
from these people

because I'm afraid of who I am

or because I have problems
with who I am.

And I'm not gonna
go through it anymore.

STEVEN". “This is not the place,“
I said,

"if you wanna confront
Aunt Helen,

then go to Detroit
and confront her.

But you're not coming here.“

He went into a rage
that frightened me.

DAVID: Don't insult me
by inviting me to come

after the relatives leave.

That's right.
Out ox' sight, okay?

Get the fuck out of our sight
until it's comfortable,

until we can deal with you
sitting here

with your homosexuality
with your AIDS.

Yeah, right, sorry for myself.

I'm the one
who's fucking dying, asshole.

I'm the one who's got
to fucking confront things

before t go,
and that's what t wanna do.

I wanna clear the fear
out ox' my head.

STEVEN". R was so painful to me,

the way that he and t
interacted.

If! could do it
all over again,

I-I'd tried to do it
a little differently.

DAVID: S0, are you afraid to
tell your children I have AIDS ?

STEVEN". And then he starts
saying, “Oh, your kids know

that you have a faggot
for a brother? "

DAVID: That's not what I said.
I said, "Are you afraid

to tell your kids I have AIDS?“

STEVEN: And I said,
“David, they're young.“

One's three years old,
the other one's six.

DAVID: It's too messy for me
to be in your fucking lives,

so save it. Save it, Steven.

I don't need this from you.

I don't need
this kind of insult.

I fucking face this every day

and I don't need it
from “family?

You understand?

Well, let the conversation end,
Steve.

We never see each other again.
Goodbye.

[phone slams shut]

STEVEN: And then,
I never saw him again.

[thunder rumbles]

DAVID: I feel pretty crazy
recently

Bot ox' anxiety.

At some point I realize
I was just afraid ox' dying.

Throughout all my life
We tried to maintain

some kind ox' complete control
ox' myself

and where We come from.

All I see is kid hustling

and all the scenes
in the streets.

Sometimes it came close
to deem,

and at times
I nearly starved,

maybe a need more self-control,
this--the mask,

this enormous rage that t carry
or may carry

from all those experiences.

Like, because I fear
and lost control ox' that rage,

H! still
become indiscriminate

in terms of what it attacks.

But really and truly I think
I'm afield of losing my mind

at some point
to some degenerative disease

like meningitis, or seizures,
or whatever.

I don't wanna lose touch
with words.

I wanna be able to provoke
some change

in whatever limited fashion

in people, in a person.

And I always had this fantasy

that ix' I were
to ever become ill

and if I were to become so weak
that I couldn't leave the house

which is another fear for me,

or at least be able to tell
that if I could keep wording

even if it's with a pencil
held between my teeth

touching each key
letter for letter,

despite rage, despite illness,

despite pain,
t hope that my mind...

continues.

MARION SCEMAMA:
AIDS was revealing exactly

what society was about.

That was already there
in his work,

he knew already
what that world was about.

He knew the structure
that sustained power.

He knew in the manipulation
that people

would like to live differently.

So the illness became a weapon

against politics
ox' the society.

DAVID: When I was diagnosed
with this virus,

it didn't take me long
to realize

I contracted a diseased
society as web'.

CROWD: Stand tough, stand tall,

it's time to march
on city hall.

REPORTER". Thousands
of demonstrators demand

that New York City
do more to help

those suffering from AIDS.

CROWD: Healthcare has arrived.
Healthcare has arrived.

NARRATOR: The scene
evoked memories of the '60s.

MAN: Civil rights or civil war'?

MAN: David and I
went to Act Up meetings.

We marched with Act Up.

The city is dying.

DAVID: In some level,
the most interesting thing

that they have is information

ox' what was happening
in the hospitals.

[baby crying]

DAVID: They were strapping
minority babies to beds

and giving hah' ox' them
placebos.

Basically,
they're stealing these babies

from their parents saying,

“This is the only way
your baby can get treatment.

Sign this form,“

killing half of them purposely
with placebos.

That atone t thought
was so outrageous.

And all these
information packets

were given to the media,
I thought,

“Well, Jesus,
this will change everything.“

I mean, how naive I was.

CROWD: Forty-something dead
per day.

Where was the help'?

SINGER: J" Don't treat me
like a science toy J"

MAN". We went down to Washington
when Act Up demonstrated

at the FDA.

REPORTER". Hundreds
or' angry demonstrators

effectively shutdown
the FDA today.

MAN". First in his land.

[music]

Demonstrators said
the AIDS crisis and the -

continue to grow every day.

Charging that the government's
response to the AIDS disease

is woefully inadequate,

they say the demonstrations
will continue.

MAN: Until I die.

MAN".
Act Up made these tombstones

and then laid down
like we were dying.

[indistinct chatter]

CROWD: Fight until we die.

MAN". Behind the barricade.

Behind the barricade.

MAN". And so they arrested us.

Bu! it got headlines.

Photographs ox' the tombstones
came up many times.

CROWD". One, two, three, Your.

Civil rights or civil war.

MAN: David got arrested
a couple more times.

MAN: Civil rights or civil war.

DAVID: For my own taste,
I would say

we got a little bit
more violent,

expressive a little stronger.

That was one of the few things
that people wit! respond to.

And I'm waking up more and more
from daydreams

of tipping Amazonian blowdarts
in 'infected blood'

and spitting them
at the exposed necklines

oi' certain politicians.

I'm not gonna be polite.
And fuck these people

that want me to be courageous.

You know, t resent that,
“Oh, how great he was,

how courageous he was.“

All the way up to the end.

There's no expression in that
other than silence.

DAVID: Somebody once said to me
that if you spit

a piece of gum on the sidewalk,
it's nothing,

but if ten people
or a hundred people,

or a thousand people
spit their gum

onto the same sidewalk
people have to deal with it,

they become stuck in it
when they walk {Waugh it.

And t see that as part
ox' a relationship

with art.

When people put themselves
on the line in their work,

whether it's music, writing,
photography, painting,

or whatever in terms of Culture
with a capital C,

they apply a tiny amount
ox' pressure

against the system ox' control

that would willingly jump
into fascism

if there wasn't enough pressure
on its throat.

[music]

[beeping]

DAVID: We are born
into a pre-invented existence

within a tribal nation
of zombies.

The government
has a day-to-day job,

maintaining an illusion
oi' a one-tribe nation.

And inside
of that one-tribe nation,

there's actually millions
of tribes.

Historically minorities
have always been expendable

in this country.

Historically, art was made

by certain classes ox' people

for a certain classes
ox' people.

What I make in my work
is a record ox' things

that challenges the record
that we're given daily,

whether it's in the newspapers,
to the television,

or through the politicians.

WOMAN: I chose to stay
and fight.

I chose to stay and fight.

DAVID:
If I were a violent person,

I would go
into the Nation's Capitol

and start annihilating
the people that I believe

responsible for this
pie-invented existence,

but the originators
are long dead.

The way things
are set in motion

in terms ox' society,

it's like a machine
that runs itself

that can't stop.
It can run by itself,

think by itself,
police enforce it,

- schools enforce it.
- [bell ringing]

DAVID: Government officials
enforce it.

Even the stupidity
ox' large populations

enforce it.

MAN". Raise all the glory
while we do it to them again.

[crowd chatter]

MAN: Cardinal O'Connor
has helped tens of thousands

ox' people
to the?! unnecessary deaths

through the denial of pertinent
safe sex information.

He obviously prefers coffins
to condoms.

- Safe sex information.
- I know why we're here today.

This is Jesus Christ.

I am in front of St. Patrick's
Cathedral on Sunday.

We're here reporting
on a major AIDS activist

and abortion rights activist
demonstration.

Inside, Cardinal O'Connor

is busy spreading his lies
and rumors

about the position
of lesbians and gays.

DAVID: They act as if--
because there's this

abstract flea
ox' what religion is,

of what God is,

that this man is untouchable
and he's not.

And this church
can be shutdown

the same way he shuts down
abortion clinics,

the same way he prevents people
getting information

or making personal decisions
about their life,

he can be shutdown.

ls the green light on?

PHIL: Green light's not on
but, uh--

- DAVID: Let's see this.
- PHIL: Yeah.

- The green light's on.
- DAVID: Yeah. S0 it's on.

- PHIL: It's rolling'?
- DAVID: Yeah.

PHIL: East Germany today
took down the Berlin Wall.

BARRY". Back at that time,
David had a big body ox' work

and it was really strong stuff
bu! his career,

kind of, flattened out.

The publicity from his
contribution to the catalogue

for Witnesses."
Against Our Vanishing.

And Artists Space
was what brought him

to the national stage,

and it wasn't for an artwork,
it was for an essay

that he wrote in the catalogue.

DAVID: I...

I wouldn't say derogatory,
you know,

I don't think
I'm-I'm being that critical.

NAN GOLDIN: I asked David
to write for the catalogue.

There aren't such
intense people

in the world anymore.
But he was a genius

which I don't use
for anyone else I can think ox'.

BARRY". David's essay
was talking about

how the imagination
was the last frontier

for creative freedom,

that in his imagination

he can douse Jesse Helms
with gasoline

and set his putrid ass on fire,
I quote,

or throw William Dannemeyer
off the Empire State Building

and made a reference
to Cardinal O'Connor,

total enemy of the state,

called him that fat cannibal
in skirts

in the house
ox' walking swastikas.

Now, this didn't play well.

With the establishment.

Tonight the Manhattan Art
Exhibit about AIDS

is losing a lot
of federal money

because of what
will be shown in the exhibit.

The chairman of the NEA states,

“We find that a large portion
of the content

is political rather than
artistic in nature."

It is the fact that I maybe
dying 0f AIDS in 1989,

is that not political?

It is a fact that I don't have
health insurance

and I don't have access
to adequate healthcare,

is that not political?

And I, you know,
I think that says it clearly.

BARRY". This is Washington
and Helms was on a rampage.

He'd already racked up
Mapplethorpe,

got him to court room
to cancel their show.

He'd already racked up
Piss Christ.

I mean, this was the time

and they were looking
for the trifecta,

the third thing,
and David Wojnarowicz

was perfect for this.

This senator is unwilling
to spend one penny.

I'm sad to see that, um,

Congress might not feel
that this show

should be supported
by any American taxpayer.

Is this about homophobia
or what is it about?

I--I'm confused by it.

PHIL:
What are you thinking about?

Uh, no. lt's just that,
uh, you know,

when I'm talking to this
journalist from the "lime.

N0, he said that the NEA
is claiming

that what I said was horrible,
monstrous,

you know,
inflammatory, this, that.

And most terrible things that
they can't even repeat them.

And I said like, “A study done
in the art violence

in America found that
there was increasing numbers

of homosexual teenagers
that were murdered

or beaten up.

And that Dannemeyer
tried to supress

that pan of the study

because it contained
the word homosexual.

Therefore, William Dannemeyer
condones the murder

and terrorizing
or' homosexual teenagers

and no gesture,
I could make it

even approximate the violence
of what these people have done.

I'm not gonna sit still
and be silent about it.

PHIL: How heroic.

To the barricades!

PHIL: But what's happening now'?

DAVID: Uh, Susan called out

and it turns out that, uh,

the NEA approached Susan

and now they're doing
a pint press conference

issuing statements
and Susan does this -

liberal motherfucking stance
of here,

"I think there are
certain issues

that are not resolved here ."

And I said,
“What the fuck are you doing?“

I said, "These assholes have
themselves against the wall

over all these issues,
over a homophobia,

legislative silence
of homosexuals

and lesbians in this country.

What you're doing is you're
avoiding the whole fucking thing

for your funding
as if you're a collaborator.

You and your whore
and it's indicative

of the whole
fucking art world.

PHIL: David was more skeptical

and more negative
about the art world

than he was about Jesse Helms

because he thought
that curators of the art work!

hid art with queer ideas

and just anything that was out
of the White one-tribe nation

as he said was being censored
by the museum.

You didn't need Jesse Helms
and people like that

because the museums were
already doing the job for you.

Okay, thanks.

Okay-

Okay-

PHIL: What happened'?

She's fine.
She's, like, uh...

She said that she could stay
in her statement

that this is a failure
of the government

to confront homophobia
in the society,

the legislation
into silence of homosexuals.

And it's the failure to provide
safe sex information

people with AIDS so that-uh,

so they can make
informed decisions.

PHIL: Did she say that
to the press'?

This is her statement.

She's--and that she's gonna
thank me, uh,

from the bottom other heart,

uh, for what she's learned.

I feel, you know, I feel
pretty emotional about it.

Oh, man.

[music]

MAN: This show does contain
10 years of work

starting with David's
early street stencil pieces

to work that was
just made yesterday

especially for this gallery.

S0 without further ado,

I like to introduce
David Wojnarowicz.

[applause]

DAVID:
Thanks a lot for coming tonight.

I don't think anybody expected
a crowd into this.

This is kind of strange
and emotional for me

to be standing in a room

filled with artifacts
of my life.

Each painting, photograph,
and sculpture

has built into it
a particular frame of mind

that only I can know

given that I've always
felt alienated

in this country
we call America.

If I say I'm homosexual,
is that something new to you?

Does that make you nervous?

D0 you think
it would be a crime,

the denial of information
and only kill people

that you didn't feel
comfortable with?

Do you stop to get to know
the person

you sit or walk next to
in the school?

Do you make it comfortable
tor that person

to express ideas that
might change your ideas?

And I wake up every morning.

I wake up every morning

of this killing machine
called America.

And I carry this rage
like a blood-filled egg

as each T-cell disappears
from my body

is replaced by
10 pounds of pressure,

10 pounds of rage.

And t focus that rage
is not in my resistance

but the focus
is starting stow

and the egg
is starting to crack.

Thank you.

[applause]

P H I L:
David became the local hero

in a town that needed a voice
like this so badly.

DAVID:
When I first went out there,

I knew that it was like
a fairly conservative town.

t mean, t had fantasies
ox' people with torch

storming the gallery.

And the days that followed,

people would come running over
to talk to me

when they spotted me.

R was an extremely emotional
positive response.

BARRY".
I should probably tell you

how the controversy happened

about a month into the show.

There was one page in the book.
“was a black and while,

homage to Jean Genet
who is one of David's heroes.

I didn't know it was in color.

He just gave us the black
and white

when we put it in the book.

Jean Genet has a plate over his
head that looks like a halo.

There's angels with Tommy Guns,

and in the right-hand comer,

there's a picture
of Jesus Christ

with a hypodermic on his arm.

It didn't make
no never mind to me,

but one of the people
that got ahotd of the book

was Dana Rohrabacher,

the right wing politician

from Orange County, California.

Rohrabacher put together
a screed

with a Xerox image of Christ
with injectable

talking about,

“You know what your NEA money
is going for,

15,000 wen! to a show

that has anal
and oral homosexual sex,

it's like a circus.

This exhibition,
Tongues of Flame

is an orgy
of degenerate depravity. "

[music]

BARRY: Then I started getting
letters and threats

from people
to the university saying,

“We hear you have
this exhibition

that is morally unacceptable.“

People would come to the show.

And Yd end up
having contest with them

about who can quote
me Bible better,

me or them.

I'm frying to explain to them

that Jesus was
the man of sorrows

and he was here to cleanse us
of our sins.

And if that meant
taking on the pain ox' a junky,

then that's what Christ
would have to do.

[music]

BARRY". And a}! of a sudden,

I get a copy
ox' a Mo-page pamphlet

that has excerpts
ox' David's greatest hit

from Donald Willdmon

and the American Family
Association.

Donald Wildmon got Pepsi
to stop using Madonna

as a spokesperson because
ox' cones that she was wearing

and she was being
anti-religious

and it would only -
have been sent

thousands ox' church-goers

and any senator or congressman

who hadn't gotten it
from Rohrabacher.

I sent that to David
and I said,

"Look at this."

And that's when the shit -

[music]

TERRY GROSS". Coming up,
Wojnarowicz explains

why he's suing a group
that's trying to cut off

government funding
of the arts.

DAVID: Donald Wildmon went
through a catalogue,

went through it
with a pa?! ox' scissors.

He searched out
what he perceived to be

tiny details oi' paintings
or photographs

that involved in the portrayal
ox' sexual activity.

Sometimes, using less than Mo
percent ox' a single painting,

it represented these mutilated
fragments as my work.

TERRY". This week, Wojnarowicz
took Wildmon to court

for violating his copyright

and distorting his work
by taking it out oi' context.

WENDY OLSOFF: What I remember
was the whole courtroom

completely full of artists
and friends of David,

and Reverend Wiidmon
sitting there

like he was in hell,
like in his mind

in the most awful place

that the Lord
could have possibly put him

through as full of sinners
and Sodomites

and blasphemers all around him.

WOMAN:
And people dressed in black.

WEN DY: And everyone
was dressed in black

and he looked tortured.

[music]

FRAN: This is something
that I argued with David about

numerous times.
And David was sick.

I said to him, “You know, you
don't have this time to waste.

You're not gonna change
the?! minds.

They don't have minds.

The so-called fleas
ox' these people like Wildmon,

they're not ideas.

They are aspects ox' bigotry.

There are always people
like this.

Sometimes they're more powerful
than others.“

That was a moment of power
for those kind of -

and those kind ox' people.
We're in one now, again.

But in between,
they lost power.

And in the end, they never have
the power ox' an artist.

David Wojnarowicz
is more valuable

than every one of these
preachers that ever lived

as a person and as what
he put into the world.

WEN DY: David was being casted
as that angry young man

who was just screaming
all the time.

And people had told him
that he was not a good painter.

[music]

WENDY:
So, he was challenging himself

to make beautiful paintings
of flowers.

But within that, of course,
he put his writing.

And he did it in a way
that melded with the pictures.

Bu! as he read the works,

he realized
he was telling stories

ox' death and politics.

I mean, it's just really sad,
beautiful show.

DAVID: I wonder what this
little bug does in the world,

what his job is.

And if this little bug dies,

if the world feels it,

I mean,
does the Earth feel it'?

Does the world get a little
lighter in the rotation?

MAN: There's another one here.

DAVID:
S0, you think they're married?

Or are they homosexuals
on vacation'?

[music]

MARION:
David was HI V-positive in '88.

I went to New York a lot,
a lot of time

to work with him until 1991.

I mean, for me, he wasn't sick.

You couldn't see on his face,
on his body he was sick.

Until the last trip with him,

there's one moment where I felt
this virus took his mind.

[engine revving]

MARION: May 1991, we did
this trip in the Southwest.

[engine revving]

MARION:
We were in this valley driving

and I said to David,
“Let's stop here.

I would like to take photos.“

David said, "Look,
I'm not really feeling good.

I stay in the car. Go on.

I just want to stay here.“

[car door slams]

MARION: I don't know.
Maybe I left half hour.

Then I came back to the car

and David was laying down
with the seat down.

He was, like...

white, completely white.

1 said, "David."
And he didn't answer to me.

He wasn't sleeping.

His eyes were open.

And then he looked at me

and he wasn't there.

He was somewhere.
I don't know where.

t started getting scared.

I touched his face saying,
"David, David, David, David."

And then he came back slowly
to consciousness

and then he started laughing
like nothing happened,

like, he wasn't aware,
like, he has been here.

That's the moment
I felt that, uh,

something was shifting
in his mind.

DAVID: Actually
I blanked and I,

you know,
my memory seems to come and go.

H forget so many things,
uh, these days

where it just seems
huge blocks ox' time

are suddenly gone and then--

- MARION: David.
- DAVID: --they come back.

MARION: The same trip David
took his camera and he said,

“I would like you
to take a photo ox' me,

like, if I was buried.“

So, we silently start digging

and I cover him with sand
and earth.

I took different photos.
I took photos from behind.

R was very strong,
very strong.

[music]

MARION: And that was the fast
trip we did together.

We never met again.

We spoke over the phone,
but we never met again.

[music]

TOM". I guess it was about
September ox' '91.

He catted me
in the middle ox' the night,

probably around 2:00
in the morning.

He said that he had a fever
and he was shaking.

And so, I came over.

I put him under a quilt

and he was just
really shivering,

like, he couldn't stop.

And that was
the beginning ox' it.

That was the start of it.

From then on,
things started to slowly

but surely go downhill.

He was hospitalized
for eight to ten days.

They did tests,
but then he went home.

And literaliy, from then on,

he was never really much
out of bed.

WOMAN: Hf, David -

I have a friend
who's on the board of directors

for The Museum of Modem Art.

He's interested in getting
Peter into the museum.

Call them
so they can talk to you, okay?

Bye.

[music]

MAN: When U2 did a concert
out at the Meadowlands

in New Jersey,
they sent a limousine for us.

And before the concert,
we met with them.

Bono wanted to know
it we wanted to pray with them.

We said, “No.
t think we'll pass on that.

Thank you .“

Bu! it was just so special.

I mean, he was thrilled.

He was really
really thrilled.

NIKKI:
Hi, David. It's Nikki.

- Says that you went back
in the hospital.

So, I hope you're okay.

DR. BOB". He was in
and out of Cabrini

a number of times.

And after one ox' them,
he said,

"I 'm never going back again."

Homecare was established
in that loft

of the movie theater for him.

That became a hospital room.

And most patients
didn't have that at that time.

David was one
ox' the fist people

to have that level of homecare.

And probably that was the force
ox' his personality

and Tom's
organizational skills.

If not for Tom,
that wouldn't have happened.

[beeping sound]

PAT WOJNAROW K31:
David? David?

Hello?

R's Pat.

I just want to let you know,
I talked to Tom

and I told him when
I 'm coming in.

I'm worried about you.
I hope...

t just hope that
you have someone around you

and, uh, well, H! talk to you
tomorrow, okay?

Take care. Bye-bye.

JUDY GLANTZMAN:
His decline was speeding up.

Dementia was setting in.

R was in and out.

R was getting
more and more difficult

and he was more and more
tired.

Things were happening
for David.

And you could tell David,
MOMA had just bought Fire

and he was just kind ox' like,

"That's wonderful. "

And you could tell him
five minutes later

and he would not remember.
R was like Groundhog Day,

you could just absolutely
tell him the same thing over.

And he had absolute happiness.

[David humming]

JUDY". R was a very beautiful
wide-eyed David.

R wasn't like it wasn't him.

But he was joyous.

[David humming]

TOM". Dr. Bob said,
“Areal person comes out

when they get into dementia.

h' they're nasty at core,
they'll be nasty.“

But David was as sweet
as he could be.

R was heartbreaking for me.

He didn't think anybody
would stick around

that he got sick
or he was dying.

He was very much afraid
of that.

And I think as a result ox' how
badly he was treated as a kid,

you know, there was
a tremendous sadness and fear

for me worrying about him

and knowing he was just
getting worse and worse.

Bu! at the same time,
I felt grateful

that! could be therefor him.

DAVID: Looking out the windows,
I can place myself

somewhere out in that sky,

lie down in that texture

and dream ox' years
and years ox' sleep.

And L-and I talk.

And I talk inside
my head m' change

and of peace for this body
beside me.

Smell the flowers
while you can.

TOM: July 22nd,
he died at the apartment.

And there were like
12 of us mere,

all oi' his friends,
his sister.

WOMAN: The nurse said to Tom,
"I think he's gone."

And, um...

that was it.

[music]

DR. BOB". R's no one thing
ma! look David's life,

it was the burden or' carrying

alt those illnesses
in that one body

that was just too much
tor one body to bear.

[music]

TOM". There were a lot ox' tears
during that time.

There were a lot of tears then.

But I've came a great deal
of distance now, of course.

And you know, in some ways,
it's even hard to remember him

which I don't like.

R's what time does to you.

But he's always here.

You know, he's always here
no matter what.

I know he's here.

[music]

[indistinct chatter]

[music]

Oh, my God. Here we are.

I said I'm not going to cry
and I'm already tearing up.

It has been so long coming -

Here it is.

R's a time overwhelming,
isn't it?

Wow.

Look at all of this.

TOM: All the Peter Hujar
dreaming -

- ANITA RAUFFENBART: Yeah.
- TOM: Peter was quite

an extraordinary character
and they were so connected.

Yeah.

TOM: Anita, there's your monkey.

WENDY:
There's is your monkey, sweetie.

ANITA: Oh. Yes, it is.
[laughs]

TOM: David painted it for Peter.

And it was over his bed
while he was sick.

- WENDY: Yes.
- TOM:And when he died,

they--they gave it to Anita.

- Kept it for 20 years.
- TOM: Yeah.

ANITA: And I'm so sorry.
I needed to sell it. [laughs]

If I could but it back
from that woman, I would.

Peter would always say
that the monkey was carrying

the weight of the world
on his shoulders

the way David did it.

TOM: This has always
been a favorite.

When I first saw it,

it really kind of
moved me a lot.

At that point,
David was not feeling very well

and ljust kept thinking
of extinction and Wojnarowicz.

He's so clever.
He really was.

He had such a great
childish imagination.

DAVID: Imagination is the key
to breaking through

the borders of countries.

We can break through existing
structures ox' government.

The work that anybody
does as an artist,

you know,
it doesn't reflect resistance

then they're -

a system of control
become more perfect.

MAN". We rise to greet the state

to confront the state.

SINGER: I- ♪

SINGER: I- ♪

And you thought
I was just no strength J"

You thought
I was just - J"

J" You thought I was just worth
a picture J"

To- of thoughts
and times- J"

[music]

[glass breaks]

[music]

SINGER: J" Lies they tell us,
lies they live J"

J" What is it
that lies can give'? J"

J" Peace or hatred,
love or fear? J"

Who will lie
the most this year'? J"

J" Lies they tell us,
lies they live J"

J" What is it that lies
can give'? J"

J" Peace or hatred,
love or fear? J"

J" Who will lie the most
this year'? J"

PETER: This is Hujar
at noon on Sunday

you wanna hear some Italian?

Listen.

[woman speaks Italian]

PETER: Did you like ma?

Oh, she's been imitating
an American.

How about that?
Anyway, goodbye.

MAN". See you later, gator.

[birds chirping]

- [laughter]
- SINGER: J" - your heart J"