ABSTRACT
In 1987 Jim Hubbard and the author founded the New York Lesbian and Gay Experimental Film Festival. The authors made their commitment to experimental, personal, and independent film because they believe that every person sees the world differently. But "experimental" also has significance for a lesbian and gay audience. These rough, handmade films are consistently a far more visceral and accurate presentation of how we really live than commercial films prepared for a straight audience. The area that most clearly highlights the difference between personal and commercial images is in representation of AIDS. To date there have been few commercial films addressing the epidemic. But one thing that they all have in common is that the look of AIDS is whitewashed from the public eye. Viva Eu by Tania Cypriano, a Brazilian woman, is a portrait of Wilton Braga, an artist living for nine years with AIDS. His body is covered with Kaposi's Sarcoma, yet he is filmed casually nude.
