"Fake death is OK in the movies," says filmmaker Peter Friedman. "People like to be scared as long as they know they're safe. Real death is OK too in terms of the nightly news--piles of corpses of people that we'll never know. But this is different."
This is "Silverlake Life: The View From Here," a feature-length documentary, edited and co-directed by Friedman, about a gay couple facing the terminal stages of AIDS. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Freedom of Expression Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January, "Silverlake Life" (which has its theatrical premiere Friday at the Vista Theater in Hollywood before a nationwide release through Zeitgeist Films) has been a hot topic of discussion ever since.
Although the AIDS crisis has been examined with varying degrees of success in films, television shows, plays, dance, paintings and even symphonies, it is safe to say that it has never been regarded with the up-close intensity of this slice of HIV-positive life. Shot on video (and later transferred to film) in a first-person diary style, "Silverlake Life" records the everyday struggles of lovers Tom Joslin and Mark Massi to keep body and soul together as long as they can, in a filmmaking style that conveys a gut-level intimacy that somehow avoids mere exhibitionism.
Joslin was Friedman's co-director on the project--a fact that sets "Silverlake Life" apart from any film or video about AIDS made to date. For at the climax of the documentary, Joslin dies. On screen. This event was not only anticipated by Joslin, but was intentionally woven by him--with the help of his lover and co-cinematographer Massi--into the fabric of the film.
A close friend of Joslin's, Friedman is keenly aware of the precedents the film shatters, and the objections it is sure to raise from many viewers. Still, the 35-year-old filmmaker believes that the risks the film takes are both appropriate and necessary in the raising of public consciousness of AIDS as the epidemic enters its second decade with no end in sight.
Sitting in a West Hollywood cafe, speaking of the film with a mixture of professional pride and personal grief, Friedman is well aware of the fact that the people he most wants to see "Silverlake Life"--those still indifferent to AIDS--are going to be the toughest sell. He also knows that many of those at the epicenter of the epidemic may want to pass on it as well. Still, Friedman is not ready to write off any potential viewer.
" 'Silverlake Life' involves two things this society tries to keep out of view--death and homosexuality," he says. "I really don't know what can be done about that resistance except to fight it by being honest. There's so little honesty in this society when it comes to AIDS. On one level, there's been this almost obsessive talking about it. But all that talk is about fear. People want to keep the disease at arm's length. This film tries to break that down. This is a film about ordinary life. It shows what people have to go through on a daily basis with their illness--going to the store, visiting the doctor, dealing with their parents, trying to keep their relationships going.
"You know," Freidman continues, "Sundance was great, but I found it strange that the description of the film in the festival catalogue didn't mention the fact that Tom and Mark were lovers for over 20 years. They were just described as being 'two men.' That misses the whole point of the film really, because 'Silverlake Life' is a love story. Beyond AIDS, there's a whole set of other issues the film deals with about gay relationships being unrecognized--made invisible by society. That's one of the things Tom and Mark were fighting all their lives."
As Friedman speaks in a clear and even voice, cut with an occasional tremble as he recalls specific incidents and emotions, his overall tone suggests that he hasn't quite gotten used to talking about his friend in the past tense.
"I met Tom in 1976. He was my film teacher in my first year of college" says Friedman, who attended Hampshire College. "I know people always say that they had one teacher in their life that really affected them. For me, that person was Tom. He was the first openly gay person I ever met.
"I was midway through the semester, and Tom had never mentioned anything about his being gay. One day he invited me to see his film 'Blackstar: Autobiography of a Close Friend.' "
The experimental documentary is about the early years of Joslin and Massi's relationship and deals with Joslin coming out to his family.
