Peter Friedman

A ridiculous mini-doc about Bill Daughton and his creation of a six-foot penis costume at the Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village, New York. See Daughton dressed up in the giant penis costume, walking around campus, catching the subway, and chatting with people about the costume on his way to the Halloween Parade. (Oddball Films)

All over the world, in every society, there are objects that have special power over people. People climb mountains or make pilgrimages just to see or touch them. They prostrate themselves or engage in rituals in their presence, caress them in the hopes of absorbing some of their magic, they enshrine them in temples or pass them on to descendants; wear them or store them in treasure houses or sometimes burn them. An individual object might hold power over only one group or even just one person, but the phenomenon of "power objects" is universal.

Profiles Roy Smeck, a former vaudeville star known as "The Wizard of the Strings" because of his virtuoso talents on the guitar, banjo, ukelele and Hawaiian guitar, and who is shown to be still active, in his mid-80s, teaching students and giving occasional public performances.

Shows a cigarette smoker's convention in a hotel where everyone has some kind of sleep disorder ranging from insomnia, narcolepsy, sleepwalking, and even sleeptalking. Then a skateboard surf/punk and his super-intelligent piglet pull some surprises on the confused conventioneers.

An extraordinary video diary about living with AIDS documenting, with guts and humor, the love and dedication of longtime companions Tom Joslin and Mark Massi, from the emotional challenge of living with a fatal illness to the frustration of maintaining daily routines,.

A guided tour into the invisible world of cells, told through a collage of metaphors. Discusses and portrays the invisible world of cells, how they communicate with each other, work together, reproduce, and die, all to benefit the larger organism of which they are a part. State-of-the-art micro-cinematography is playfully intercut with parallel images from life at the human scale: a hundred lighted violins, imploding skyscrapers, pieces of film on the cutting room floor.

The continuing political significance of Silverlake Life is brought into clearer focus. Another friend of Tom Joslin and Mark Massi, Elaine Mayes recorded footage of Mark’s decline after Tom’s death, which is where the original version ends. It’s fitting that Mark’s own life, death, and the loss of his lover are here given the sort of attention afforded Tom’s experiences. It reminds us that AIDS is far from over.

Far from the sophistication and relative tolerance of urban centers, gay people are beginning to lead integrated lives in small towns throughout rural America. Danny Cooper has been upfront about his homosexuality since his teens. Now he lives openly with his lover. As the local mailman in a small Louisiana town, he has come to be accepted in a friendly and courteous manner by his neighbors. Although Danny has been through fights in school, was once fired fromhis job, and even evicted from his home, he has never failed to stand up for his right to be himself. In the end, he is changing the face of anti-gay prejudice in his town. Today, Danny is fighting his hardest battle-against HIV infection-withthe same openness and courage. And even though his T-cell countis near zero, he describes himself as "the luckiest human in the world."

Prior to leaving Hampshire College in 1980, Tom was working on a 16mm film inspired by Jose Arguelles' book, The Transformative Vision: Reflections on the Nature and History of Human Expression. Shot in sync and MOS, the footage reflects Tom's interest in perception, human consciousness, and signaled his evolving interest in fusing non-fiction, experimental and dramatic genres. All the original materials for this unfinished film were stored at the LA home of Ken Levin, another Hampshire College alum who along with several other students, worked with Tom on this project, which he called the Architecture of Mountains.

This documentary is a portrait of an "animal therapist and psychic" who has convinced skeptical pet owners, zoo keepers, and race horse trainers that she really can "talk" to their animals. We see her at work counseling race horses in need of leisure time, depressed cats, and misguided ants. We hear from owners and trainers who describe how their animals' behaviors changed following her sessions, and how she told them things about the animals that she "could not have known"--unless the animals told her themselves. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta said this, "Witty and understated, this film hardly seems the sort of documentary one would call subversive. . .but if we accept the essence of Friedman's work, it's not merely subversive but revolutionary, for it tests the very foundations of our experience of consciousness and our relationship with the natural world.”

Using the same imaginative interplay of classic films, animation and research, this film tells the complex story of how we age and also shows how scientists hope to alter the genes that determine how long we live.