Jean Carlomusto

Jean Carlomusto (born 1959, Queens, New York) is a New York filmmaker, AIDS activist, and interactive media artist. She produced and directed HBO's Emmy nominated documentary, Larry Kramer in Love & Anger, which was featured at the Sundance Film Festival. Her works have been exhibited internationally in festivals, museums and on television. She was an early pioneer in documenting the AIDS crisis. As the founder of the Multimedia Unit at Gay Men's Health Crisis, she created the television series Living with AIDS. She was a founding member of DIVA TV (a video affinity group of ACT UP) and a member of the Testing The Limits Video Collective. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film from C.W. Post in 1981. She earned her M.P.S. in Interactive Telecommunications from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. When Joey Leonte from the Gay Men's Health Crisis came to her class to request a video, and none of the students wanted to work with him, the shame of her class' reaction drove Carlomusto to volunteer for the Gay Men's Health Crisis to increase awareness about AIDS and build empathy for those with the illness.

In February 1987, Testing the Limits Collective founders Gregg Bordowitz and David Meieran filmed the first ACT UP demonstration at Wall Street. They met Jean Carlomusto at this demonstration, who was taping it for Living with AIDS. Independent from her AIDS work, Carlomusto created the personal documentary To Catch a Glimpse (2007), which investigates the mysterious death of her grandmother.

Some of Carlomusto's work is now permanently housed in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and has been exhibited in California, Sweden, and South Africa.

Personal life

Carlomusto identifies as an Italian-American lesbian from a working-class background. She is a senior student at the Village Zendo in New York City. She is in a relationship with Lori Herbison.

Publications Carlomusto, J. (1989). "Making It: AIDS Activist Television." Video Guide, p. 18.

Carlomusto, J. (1992). "Focusing on Women." in ACT UP (ed.) Women, AIDS, and Activism, New York Women's and AIDS Book Group. Boston, MA: South End, pp. 215–218.

Carlomusto, J. (1992). "Preserving Desire". Felix: A Journal of Media Arts and Communication.

Carlomusto, J. & Bordowitz, G. (1992). "Do It! Safer Sex Porn for Girls and Boys Comes of Age." Conference paper in A. Klusaček and K. Morrison (Eds.) A Leap in the Dark: AIDS, Art, and Contemporary Cultures: 5th International Conference on AIDS. Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Carlomusto, J. (2004). "Radiant Spaces: An Introduction to Emily Roysdon's Photographs." GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, 10 (4), pp. 671–679.

Carlomusto, J. (2013). "Archival Praxis." GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, 19 (4), p. 570.

Pidduck, J. (2009). "Queer Kinship and Ambivalence: Video Ethnographies by Jean Carlomusto and Richard Fung." GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, 15 (3), pp. 441–468.

Exhibits

"To Catch a Glimpse", Permanent Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. (2000–present).

"AIDS; A Living Archive", co-curated with Jane Rosett part of the exhibit Gay Men's Health Crisis: 20 Years Fighting for People with H.I.V./AIDS."Museum of the City of New York, New York, N.Y. (2001).

“Offerings,” Museums of World Culture, Goteborg, Sweden (2004/2005); Fowler Museum, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (2008); Durbin Art Gallery, Durbin, South Africa.

"Everyday", Co-curated with Alexandra Juhasz and Hugh Ryan for Visual AIDS, La Mama Galleria, New York, New York, (2016)

Films Testing the Limits: New York City (Testing the Limits Collective), 1987

L is for the Way You Look (1991).

Not Just Passing Through (1994).

Fast Trip, Long Drop (1994).

To Catch a Glimpse (1997).

Doctors, Liars, and Women: AIDS Activists Say No to Cosmo (1998).

Shatzi is Dying (2000).

Monte Cassino (2003).

[Sex in an Epidemic (2011).

How to Survive a Plague (2013).

Larry Kramer in Love and Anger (2015).

Television

Living with AIDS, Gay Men's Health Crisis, 1986–1994.

AIDS Community Television (DIVA TV), ACT UP,1991-1996.

ACT UP Live, DIVA TV, ACT UP, 1994–1996.