Siriusly on OutQ

Somehow the media monster that is Joe.My.God was able to receive my Sirius OutQ interview with Michaelangelo Signoreli before I could so I'll just recap here before I get the file myself.

First off, the Sirius offices are modernly designed aesthetic powerhouse! The whole look of the place is like Superman's Fortress of Solitude but instead of speaking into crystals you speak into microphones. The whole place is glass and carpet and nice wood and it's got all those elements you think something of the future would have. In short - it's a swanky place.

So I get on the show and Signoreli introduces me as a filmmaker, activist, blah blah and then we get into the discussion of my PSA and the story behind it. As I've said before- The PSA was never really meant to be a "Public Service Announcement" it was more just a piece of media I wanted to make about the reality of modern gay sex and getting tested. And, to repeat again, in the conceptualization, writing and directing of the piece never did it cross my mind that this would later be regarded as a "fear campaign" or that I was "using fear to send a message." All I was doing was translating a specific piece of my realistic experience to film- that's all. Yeah it's a scary subject but so is going to the dentist but we all got to do it.

Going forward I told the story of how I shopped the piece around to non-profits and they were all "We can't work with you because you make in fear campaigns..." And I was all, "Ummm..? What? Are? You? Talking? About?" Shrug- whatever. Which lead me to the discussion of viral videoing and the power of You Tube.

The best thing about Youtube, especially regarding gay media is the fact that we can do whatever the hell we want with simplicity of do-it-yourself filming and uploading. We no longer have to ask permission of anyone, go through the bureaucracies of finding distribution and most importantly we don't have to use straight people or straight tactics to get at the core of gay issues. This idea is incredibly exciting and it isn't until now that a filmmaker has complete freedom over their piece or message. Talk about empowerment!

Signoreli then asked about the communication gap between older and younger gay men. I explained the case as I see it. There's a non-communicating back to back stand off where the older generation who suffered through Stonewall and the utter devastation of the Aids Crisis perceive the younger generation as, more or less, taking it all for granted. The older generation says, "you don't respect us" while the younger generations says, "you don't understand us" and nothing is getting done in between. Having been to many activist and group meetings between the spectrum of AIDS to Crystal Meth it's always this resentful shoving match and when the meeting is over people either shrug or roll their eyes or sometimes both.

There is a sentiment that young people don't care, they don't want to be involved, that we know that safe sex exists but we choose not to use condoms and I feel as though that's a misconception. I DO think young people want to be involved, want to be active and want to be a part of things it's just that activism needs to evolve with the times. What I hit upon in the interview is that if a group like Imporv Everywhere can get 300 or so young people to freeze in Grand Central Station than that's proof that young people are willing to get out there and it's just a matter of combining activism with creativity which might just do the trick. Recently 3000 or so people gathered in Union Square to hold a silent rave. 3000 people! Do you know who easily you can turn something like that into an action? Activism still has tremendous room to exist it's just a matter of finding a way to put a creative and modern spin on it.

Signoreli and I then talked about other campaigns that receive the brandishing of fear mongering. Most specifically we discussed the campaign HIV is No Picnic which depicts men who suffer from Lypo dystrophy, crix belly, diarrhea, etc... People feel as though this campaign stigmatizes people living with HIV and only focuses on the negative impacts while not including the tremendous number of people living with HIV who don't show symptoms and/or are completely healthy. My response to that is- go ahead and throw those healthy people into the campaign - it will only illuminate the utter unpredictability of this virus. Some people are healthy, and healthy for a long time if not their whole lives, and other people aren't so healthy. What's wrong with talking about this? What's wrong with shining light on this?

Time ran out really quickly and both Signoreli and I agreed we were just hitting the tip of the iceberg but hopefully he'll have me on again. I've got much more to discuss like: the importance of younger men having the influence of the older perspective, of how knowing and learning about the AIDS crisis of the 80's and the government's slow response might make young people stronger, more self respecting and encourage them to feel responsibility of taking care of one another, how this nation accepts homosexuality yet does not condone it and the trickle down effect that has on gay men's mental health....

All to come.

I'll post the interview as soon as I get it. (Ahem, JMG.) And here's the Piece/PSA I made so you can have a look-see for yourself.

Happy Friday and Rage On: