VITO

2013 News & Documentary Emmy Award Winner

“The idea of a film came about when I realized that Vito participated in every significant milestone in the gay liberation movement — from Stonewall to ACT UP — and that his story was also the story of our community…our freedom is his gift to us.” — Jeffrey Schwarz

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Soon after coming out and becoming secure in my identity, I naturally gravitated toward films with LGBT themes. This was the early 90s, and movies like My Own Private Idaho, The Living End, Poison, and Swoon were formative. These films were outré, edgy, and empowering for a young queer. Even though I was a newbie, there was one book that everyone knew was the bible of gay film. It was called The Celluloid Closet by somebody named Vito Russo. This book combined my two favorite obsessions — homosexuality and the movies — and I devoured it. Vito introduced me to a whole world of images I had no idea existed, and helped me see films in a new way. As an activist, Vito knew that the key to acceptance was visibility and championed sympathetic and realistic portrayals of our lives.

When I found out that Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman were making The Celluloid Closet into a film, I jumped at the chance to be part of it. Working with Rob and Jeffrey as an assistant editor on The Celluloid Closet film adaptation gave me a chance to help them bring Vito’s vision to the screen. It also allowed me to get to know Vito Russo, only three years after his death from AIDS. All of Vito’s research for The Celluloid Closet was at my fingertips — interviews, articles, videotapes, lectures — and best of all, Rob and Jeffrey’s extended conversations with Vito himself. Beyond his work as a film scholar, I learned about the years Vito spent battling AIDS as both a person with the disease and a passionate and angry agent for change. Although he didn’t live long enough to see much of the progress he had been hoping for, his work forever changed the landscape for those living with the disease.

The idea of a film came about when I realized that Vito participated in every significant milestone in the gay liberation movement — from Stonewall to ACT UP — and that his story was also the story of our community. A documentary could contextualize how he and his gay liberation brothers and sisters were able to begin to overcome homophobia and oppression, and emerge from invisibility to liberation. We are all living the end result Vito’s work, and our freedom is his gift to us.

As time marches on, a new generation of LGBT youth is coming of age without knowing about pioneers like Vito Russo and how he made it possible for us to live proudly and openly in the world. Vito’s message of standing up, speaking out, and living passionately and bravely in the face of adversity is something we can all aspire to, regardless of sexual orientation. More than twenty years after Vito’s death, members of the LGBT community around the world still face prejudice and persecution, and HIV / AIDS is still a crisis. Vito knew the goal of equality goal of equality and justice would not be achieved in his lifetime, but that it would come to pass. It’s my hope that this film will celebrate one of the founding fathers of the LGBT movement, and allow his work to once again move and inspire us all as we continue the battles that he once fought.

— Jeffrey Schwarz

On June 27, 1969, a police raid on a Greenwich Village gay bar called the Stonewall took a surprising turn when patrons decided it was time to fight back. As a riot erupted on Christopher Street, a new era in the Gay Rights Movement was born. Vito Russo, a 23-year-old film student, was among the crowd. Over the next twenty years until his death from AIDS in 1990, Vito would go on to become one of the most outspoken and inspiring activists in the LGBT community’s fight for equal rights. He was a pivotal part of three well-known organizations during their formative years: GAA (Gay Activists Alliance), which staged subversive works of protest performance art to secure rights and dignity for all gay people; GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation), formed to ensure that media representation of gays and lesbians was accurate; and ACT UP (AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power), a guerrilla activist group that turned the fury over President Reagan’s refusal to do anything about AIDS into a series of highly telegenic acts of civil disobedience. In the midst of his commitment to activism, Vito was also a prolific writer. His seminal book The Celluloid Closet explored the ways in which gays and lesbians were portrayed on film, what lessons those characters taught gay and straight audiences, and how those negative images were at the root of society’s homophobia. Even before the book was published, Vito was taking The Celluloid Closet on the road, traveling to gay film festivals and college campuses for an entertaining and informative lecture-slash-clip show that intertwined Vito’s love of show business and radical gay politics. He continued writing, lecturing, speaking out and acting up until just months before his death.

Unleash Power), a guerrilla activist group that turned the fury over President Reagan’s refusal to do anything about AIDS into a series of highly telegenic acts of civil disobedience. In the midst of his commitment to activism, Vito was also a prolific writer. His seminal book The Celluloid Closet explored the ways in which gays and lesbians were portrayed on film, what lessons those characters taught gay and straight audiences, and how those negative images were at the root of society’s homophobia. Even before the book was published, Vito was taking The Celluloid Closet on the road, traveling to gay film festivals and college campuses for an entertaining and informative lecture-slash-clip show that intertwined Vito’s love of show business and radical gay politics. He continued writing, lecturing, speaking out and acting up until just months before his death.

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR
Jeffrey Schwarz

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Bryan Singer

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER FOR HBO
Sheila Nevins

SUPERVISING PRODUCER FOR HBO
John Hoffman

EDITOR/CO-PRODUCER
Philip Harrison

CO-PRODUCER
Lotti Pharriss Knowles

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
David Quantic

COMPOSER
Miriam Cutler

“Hugely moving and even more inspiring.”
— LA Weekly

“Involving…vibrant…a dramatic focal point in the history of gay rights.”
— Variety

“An emotionally powerful documentary portrait.”
— Hollywood Reporter

For public and educational screening inquiries:
Jeffrey Winter / The Film Collaborative
jeffrey (at) thefilmcollaborative (dot) org

For official presskit & stills:
thefilmcollaborative.org/films/vito

For all other inquiries:
jeffrey (at) automatpictures (dot) com