Silverlake life
By Charlotte Stace
La Filmoteca brings the poignant and heart-breaking documentary film Silverlake Life: The View from Here (1993) from the directors Peter Friedman and Tom Joslin. As part of the cinema’s Underground Archive footage, the film follows both Joslin and his partner Mark Massi as they spend their last years together living with AIDS.
In 1989, filmmaker Joslin took his home video camera and filmed with love, humour, tenderness and dignity, the last months of everyday life with his partner Friedman after they were both diagnosed with AIDS. After Joslin’s death, Peter Friedman, who was a friend of the couple, created a film diary from the VHS tapes to make this documentary.
The video so reminiscent of a typical home movie, captures the intimacy and love the couple shared. It shines a light on a community shaken by AIDs and homophobia during the 1980s and 90s.