Gay Sex in the 70s: A Film by Joseph Lovett
Gay Sex in the 70s: A Film by Joseph Lovett
Screening and Q&A
Sex had become the great equalizer. Young men of all financial strata and backgrounds met in New York to experience a freedom of sexual expression that hadn’t been known since ancient Rome.
Howl! Happening and Some Serious Business are pleased to present the groundbreaking documentary film Gay Sex in the 70s. Directed by Joseph Lovett, the film documents gay life in New York—from Greenwich Village to the Fire Island Pines—during the decade of liberation and sexual abandon following Stonewall and before the outbreak of AIDS. Gay men cruised the streets, frequented gay bars, and had loads and loads of sex. The film puts this outpouring of sexuality into perspective by looking at what gay life was like before 1969, what set the stage for the explosion, and how the political climate of the time influenced sexual expression. Lovett’s characters explore the experience that was ‘escaping to New York,’ the reasons they left the cities they had spent their entire lives in, and how things changed after the Sexual Revolution had begun.
Only 12 years after Stonewall, AIDS brought this unprecedented era of sexual freedom to a close. The film combines archival footage and interviews with author and activist Larry Kramer, photographer Tom Bianchi, and others. The evening is introduced by Lovett with a Q&A following the screening. Howl! Happening is a member of the Stonewall 50 Consortium, and the screening is part of the Stonewall 50th anniversary celebrations.
Joseph Lovett is an award-winning filmmaker who produced the first investigations on AIDS for ABC’s 20/20 and worked with many major networks. As an independent producer and director, he has created various feature documentaries and over 35 hours of primetime specials. Lovett has been honored with the Peabody, the AIDS Leadership, the Christopher, the Kitty Carlisle Hart, and numerous other awards from advocacy organizations, including an Emmy nomination.
About Some Serious Business: The Artist Always Come First
Some Serious Business incubates emergent expression in the arts, germinates intrepid new works and ideas, and presents diverse projects that celebrate audacity, experimentation, and social and cultural innovation. SSB supports hybrids and chimeras that traverse performance, literature, theater, dance, visual art, moving image, music, architecture and design, social practice, and the intersection of art and social history.
