When the government was still ignoring the countless lives lost to AIDS in 1992,
ACT UP brought their funerals straight to their door.
Literally.
Documentary filmmaker, artist, and activist James Wentzy
helped organize and document the Ashes Action,
where activists emptied the ashes of their loved ones
lost to AIDS onto the White House lawn.
When James was diagnosed in 1990,
he decided to use his art for the good of his community.
The AIDS epidemic made way to the U.S. as early as the 60s,
but it wasn’t until 1981 that it caught national attention.
When the disease, which was initially referred to as ‘the gay-related immune deficiency,’
or also referred to as 'GRID,'
started to spread rapidly, the mainstream was treating it as a joke,
and the Reagan administration wouldn’t even say it out loud.
It was simply ignored.
Through his entire body of work, James has been putting a megaphone
up to voices that aren’t being heard.
This is Legendary.
One of the first steps in making the private grief public,
is the ritual of memorials.
[Chanting] Bringing the dead to your door!
[Chanting] We won’t take it anymore!
[Chanting] Shame!
I’m Javier Muñoz,
and I’m sitting here with James Wentzy,
documentarian, artist, photographer, activist.
What in the context of that time – in the context of that era,
motivated you and inspired you?
What in that climate reached you?
In ‘85 I called an AIDS helpline and asked, ‘Should I get tested?’
and they said well you're a gay man, you're promiscuous,
or somewhat promiscuous,
don't bother getting tested just assume you're positive.
Which wasn't bad a suggestion and you know,
in ‘85, there were no drugs and so I took it to heart.
But I followed up in 1990 and – not asking them if I should get tested – I just went and got tested
and it was one of those two week waits at the time.
You waited two weeks and every other day it like, ‘yes, no, yes’.
But, it was a yes.
And I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge wondering, ‘hmm, now what am I supposed to do?’
Robert Farber, an artist who had lived with AIDS for a long time.
Robert said, 'I should take you to an Act Up meeting.'
So we did.
And so impressed, just like 300 people in a room. You feel the energy.
I knew what I could do in Act Up,
document everything.
And that’s what I did.
They are lying down. As you can see they are being instructed by
the leaders of the organization to do so.
And as you can see, it’s quite a mess here.
People are having a very difficult time getting home.
So far there has been no violence, although some unhappy commuters –
[James Wentzy] People are having a difficult time dying too.
This is in addition to the testing already underway
in our military and foreign service.
[Boos]
Now let me turn to what the states can do.
[Boos]
I look back and I can read language surrounding HIV and AIDS,
the lack of knowledge surrounding HIV and AIDS,
and the government response to it.
And when Reagan finally speaks up, it's with fear. It’s with ignorance.
And I always felt like that was such a powerful allowance
for everyone to just have fear and be silent about it.
AIDS? They were disposable people: Queers, junkies.
Yeah.
That was the language that was around it, right?
Yeah.
And Reagan finally at ‘87 – you know AIDS had been raging since before ‘81, but ‘81 was
when it was being noticed.
And finally in ‘87 – which was same year Act Up was formed, actually – Reagan finally said,
‘In education, doesn't medicine and morality teach the same lesson?’
So even then he mentioned AIDS as morals.
I imagine what it would be like
if friends had a demonstration each time a lover, or a friend, or a stranger died of AIDS.
I imagine what it would be like if, each time a lover, friend, or a stranger died of this disease
their friends, lovers or neighbors would take the dead body
and drive it with a car a hundred miles an hour to Washington D.C.
and blast through the gates of the White House
and come to a screeching halt before the entrance and dump their lifeless form on the front steps.
Is that what you’re afraid of – that people are going to see exactly what this government does?
Yeah, we have a dead body here. We have a corpse.
There was a political funeral that an activist had died and wanted his body to be used in a political way.
AIDS had gotten that bad, right?
We drove his body in a coffin to the Capitol,
and there was a little lack of planning.
They waited a little too long, and all of a sudden
some of the Capitol police and authorities got wind of it.
And they were not going to let that coffin out of the van.
The idea was to walk it to the White House.
And there was a standoff for hours, and cops were determined not to let that coffin get out of the van.
But finally the activists brought it out,
and there was one brief shuffle where you see the coffin going high in the air
and going that way then that way
and then back in the – the police put it back in the van.
One of the activists were yelling,
‘What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? Yes, we've got a dead body here. Someone who’d died of AIDS. What are you afraid of?’
And so first I was thinking oh that was a failure.
Then quickly I came around to realize they’re really aren't any failures.
I mean what was said to the cops was exactly the state of reality right there.
What are they afraid of? They don’t want it to be seen.They don’t want to see a dead body.
This is what I’m left with. I've got a box full of ashes and bone chips.
And I felt like a statement like this – throwing these on the White House lawn –
is like saying, ‘This is what George Bush has done.' You know?
This is what him and Ronald Reagan before him have done.
[Chanting] Bringing the dead to your door!
[Chanting] We won’t take it anymore!
[Chanting]
[Chanting] The whole world is watching!
[Cheering]
Can we talk about the Ashes Action?
For anyone to have that desire inside that they would prefer
to have their body, their vessel be used politically –
What inspired that action?
As the artist David Wojnarowicz had first framed in his writing,
he said, 'When I die,
I want you to take my body 100 miles an hour to Washington D.C.
and drop my body on the steps of the White House.
When I heard what he wrote my mouth just dropped open.
So that's where political funerals actually started from.
it was organized for like October in ‘92
and it was bringing our bodies to your door as we walked towards the White House.
Perfect defensive moves, blocking moves.
They would’ve been proud of us – the activists.
The cops did not want us at the White House.
We were mad.
We were carrying these ashes.
And we got to the fence and we were just chucking the ashes
And seeing them explode in the air – screams, crying, hugs.
[Chanting] The whole world is watching!
Cops started moving in with horses and,
classic action – [an organizer] said ‘Everybody sit! Everybody sit!'
And so everybody sat. And that will stop horses cold because horses will never trample anyone knowingly.
So if everybody would actually sit – not just a few but if everyone’s sitting –
There’s nothing worse than a cop on top of a horse that isn't moving.
I mean they are just disgruntled.
And it actually broke out in a downpour right after it ended.
And so the ashes turned into like mounds of concrete on the lawn.
So it was perfect.
When I tested positive for HIV antibodies in 1990,
I turned towards activism to learn all I could.
Am I more than a virus?
I guess not.
[Chanting] Act Up! Fight back!
[Chanting] 6,500 died this year.
[Chanting] Rudy fight AIDS!
They go so fast. They don’t even have time to close their eyes.
Sort of a twofold question:
What do you feel the responsibility of the artist is right now,
still in regards to this movement,
and just your average human being in this country and globally?
I guess I've always kind of had a problem being able to define the definition of art.
So I finally just defined it as life
It's just life.
But at a certain point when you’re no more sure of yourself,
I think it’s important to do something for other people.
And it goes back to society
to make it a little bit better.
[Cheers]
Hi, James Wentzy!
We beg, we pray,
we demand that this epidemic end.
Not just so we may live,
but so that Mark’s soul may rest in peace at last.
This fight is not over until all of us are safe.
Act Up.
Fight back.
Fight AIDS.