SEX POSITIVE (Daryl Wein, U.S.). 76 minutes. Monday (May 18), 2:15 pm, Isabel Bader. Rating: NNNN
It’s hard to believe there was a time when gay men didn’t use condoms or at least talk about “safer sex.” But back when AIDS was emerging in New York’s gay community in the early 80s, Richard Berkowitz, along with virologist Joseph Sonnabend and musician/activist Michael Callen, was one of the few people to come up with sex-positive ways to decrease the spread of the virus.
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Berkowitz’s story is fascinating. Raised a nice Jewish kid, he cruised parking lots as a teen, came out and confronted homophobia at Rutgers and then become a writer, S/M hustler and crack user in Manhattan. His early public admissions of gay men’s promiscuity got him the label “the Jerry Falwell of the gay community.”
Young director Daryl Wein’s doc might not be the most artful. There are a lot of talking heads, but when those heads are figures like Larry Kramer, Edmund White and Sonnabend, who cares? Berkowitz, now in his 50s and living on disability, remains as articulate, passionate and enigmatic as ever.
The fact that stats show a rise of HIV among new generations of queers makes this sad and totally relevant today.
