Doc Filmmaker Jean Carlomusto on Larry Kramer :: Anger, Love & Activism

Larry Kramer is easily the polarizing gay activist since Harvey Milk. As documented through archive footage of Kramer's speeches and television appearances, Kramer is motivated by anger; anger that stemmed from the government's prejudice, ignorance and inaction during the early devastation to the gay community by AIDS in the 1980s. Ironically, this lack of action almost made Kramer's assertion that the promiscuity of sexually liberated gay men was harming the gay fraternity a self-fulfilling prophecy, a view that many in the gay community oppose.

Better known as a playwright, novelist and activist, few may know that Larry Kramer is an Oscar-nominated screenwriter (for "Women in Love.") But he never felt suited for Hollywood and returned to New York in the 1970s. In 1978 his novel "Faggots" made him a pariah in the New York community with its scathing commentary on the promiscuity that defined it. After the onset of AIDS, he became an activist, co-founding the Gay Men's Health Crisis in 1982 and ACT UP in 1987. His fight at the forefront for government action to help the gay community was exemplified in his semi-autobiographical award-winning play "The Normal Heart" in which the angry protagonist, Ned Weeks, is as close a copy as you can get to Kramer. It took decades to get that play filmed and when it was, HBO produced it in an award-winning version directed by Ryan Murphy.

That adaptation helped to open doors for Jean Carlomusto, a friend of Kramer's, to bring her documentary on Kramer to HBO. Titled "Larry Kramer in Love and Anger," Carlomusto's story traces the early days of Kramer's unique style of fighting against an ineffective establishment. With stark images of gay men inflicted with AIDS with only despair in their eyes, she makes a case for Kramer's anger.

Yet the documentary's most powerful scenes are those filmed in a hospital's intensive care unit where Kramer was recovering from a liver transplant. Here, we see something we have never seen before: the mortality of a hero, reminiscent of last year's highly acclaimed documentary "Life Itself," where the audience is introduced to a disfigured Roger Ebert recuperating in the hospital. Even more affecting is the scene where Kramer marries his long-term partner David Webster in the ICU in 2013, in which Kramer was hardly able to whisper "I do" from his bed. It is here we witness Kramer's life's work has culminated in this very personal moment. In an America that is post nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, "Love and Anger" takes on a specific significance.

Variety's Geoff Berkshire notes, "It's a perfectly timed reminder of Mr. Kramer's outsize role in the great societal shift that led us here (Kramer's hospital wedding)." Julia Felsenthal of Vogue praises, "what Larry Kramer in 'Love and Anger' does do quite well is deliver on the promise of its title. It shows us that, with Kramer, where there's vitriol, there's also plenty of heart."

After premiere screenings at Sundance and Provincetown, "Larry Kramer in Love and Anger" recently enjoyed a lengthy long-standing ovation at San Francisco's Frameline International LGBTQ Film Festival. It is at this festival that EDGE catches up with Director Jean Carlomusto.

About Larry

EDGE: How did you get to know Larry Kramer?

Jean Carlomusto: I got to know Larry back in 1986. I started volunteering at Gay Men's Health Crisis. At that time, Larry was already out, but he was still the one that everybody was talking about there. He still had that kind of charismatic impact, because he was also attacking the agency. He was saying: 'Why aren't we more political? Why isn't GMHC fighting?' Although he was attacking the agency, I felt like there was something to what he was saying about we needed to get political. Maybe we couldn't get political within GMHC because of the fundraising necessities but what he was saying made sense to me. So when I heard that there was going to a demonstration in March 1987 of this group that would become ACT UP, I went with my camera. From ACT UP, I got to know Larry better and got a sense of him. I always felt that he had a certain degree of charisma. I didn't always agree with him. There were times when I would get angry. Just like in the film, I showed that there were times people get frustrated with him, but I really appreciated the fact that he was always pushing us to leave our comfort zone and do what was necessary.

EDGE: How did you get him to agree to do this documentary?

Jean Carlomusto: I had been to a reading of 'The American People' that he did at a gallery in the West Village. I was so moved by what he was reading. He had this incredible persona and I was just thinking: this guy is just bigger than life and it needs to have a documentary made about him. At that point, I approached him. He said to me, Jean, people have asked me before. I really don't want to do it. It feels too final. Somebody actually tried to work on it for a day or two, and it just didn't feel like. I said to him, Okay Larry, I'll make it without you, but overtime, we had a few serendipitous meetings after that and he came on board with it. Then he became actively involved in the documentary and a big supporter. There was a point in time when he was really helping me bringing the documentary to HBO. Especially after 'The Normal Heart' was picked up, Larry was instrumental in getting HBO to take on the documentary.

An angry man

EDGE: How did Larry's husband, David Webster come on board? He would have to give consent to the scenes in the documentary showing Larry in the hospital.

Jean Carlomusto: David was someone I got to know during the making of this. I really developed a real sense of respect during the making of it because he went through hell. It was not just because Larry went to the hospital, but Larry was sick. David was not just caring for Larry, coordinating Larry's care team and his health care, but he was also a busy architect running his firm. We became closer during the making of this. I really have to say, I credit him with helping this documentary to get made the way it came because if he had said to me, "Jean, Larry is too sick," I wouldn't have had the hospital segments and I think it would be a weaker piece because these segments give Larry a kind of fragility and make you also think about these heroes. The fact that they are not immortal. Their time on earth is limited. Who is picking up the torch? Everybody has to take responsibility for how our movement goes forward and Larry set a great example but he is not going to be here forever. David was instrumental, that's why he gets that big thank you at the end.

EDGE: For people who don't know Larry, they would have this idea of Larry Kramer as this man who seems to be always so angry, and motivated by anger.

Jean Carlomusto: Yes, but I think it's also from his history of a lifetime of psychotherapy. Part of what he was processing as a young man was his anger at his father and learning how to put that anger to use. Larry doesn't see anger as cathartic. He sees it as motivational. Oftentimes, he does his best work when he is angry, when he is pushed by his anger to essentially prove people wrong.

A shy man?

EDGE: In the process of making this documentary, are there things you learned that you never knew before of Larry Kramer?

Jean Carlomusto: I'm still learning things about Larry Kramer. I just saw something in the Los Angles Times that he didn't believe in God. I knew that he wasn't a religious Jew. I knew that he was more of a cultural Jew, but I didn't realize the core of that was that he didn't believe in God. The reason he didn't believe in God was because of an incident of sexual abuse that happened when he was a boy. I had no idea. Larry is going to continue to surprise us all. It's not all up on the documentary. I think I painted a good broad picture but the truth is that Larry has still got another chapter in him.

EDGE: You had mentioned that Larry has a quiet side, though it would be hard for us to imagine that.

Jean Carlomusto: For people who really get to know Larry, they see that he really is very shy. I think that's part of the reason why he will lash out in anger sometimes because if you pushed him to a place where he feels uncomfortable, he will lash out, or if you ignored him, which is what Koch (New York mayor Ed Koch) did back in 1981. Here's Larry, he came to Koch with a certain amount of cache, having been nominated for an Academy Award and having been this film executive and Koch essentially brushed him off. So here's a shy guy who then basically made it his business to take this guy on at every public venue that he can.

EDGE: How was he shy?

Jean Carlomusto: If you brought him into a big crowd of people, he's not someone who is going to work the room. He probably will be in the corner. You need to go up to him and talk to him. When he's not on stage presence, he is quiet. He likes to spend time with his dog. That's his average day.

Larry's feedback

EDGE: What is Larry's response after watching your film?

Jean Carlomusto: He has seen it a number of times. The first time that I showed it to him, for some reason, it was basically alone. The folks at HBO wanted me to show him alone. I sat next to him and I was really nervous. The film is critical. It's not just complimentary towards him, there are a lot of criticisms leveled at him. At the end of it, he was quiet. He was quiet all the way through. I think he was overwhelmed. The only thing he said to me at the end was, 'Would you please tell a story of how ACT UP broke up?' I said to him, 'Larry, I can't tell that story. You can make a short film or feature film actually, of how ACT UP broke up, but I can talk about how it broke your heart.

That was the only thing that he asked, that we put in just a little bit more. What he said since then is that it's difficult for him to watch. He loves the piece but it's difficult for him to watch because you can see it from his angle. Imagine seeing yourself so out of it at your own wedding, kind of almost pathetic. I'm very proud that he likes it as much as he does, because it's a warts-and-all portrait. It shows him at his lowest points but he sees that as a fair portrait. Some people may think that I wasn't hard enough on him but I don't know what else they want me to say. Has he insulted people? Yes. Has he pissed people off? Yes. Did I say that? Yes.

EDGE: What moves you the most about Larry, all these years you have known him?

Jean Carlomusto: The thing that moves me the most especially around the making of the film was when I saw the cut of the wedding because I was there, I was shooting it. But when you're shooting, a lot of times, there's a piece of you that has to remain detached and you have to kind of engaged in representing the event, but when I saw it cut together, I was crying. I called up our editor. It was the weekend. I just said to him, this is the end of the film. We were wondering what the ending of the film going to be because chronologically, that wedding actually happened earlier than other events but we moved that to the end because I think nothing else that to me could express this kind of gratitude that motivated me to make the film. Here's this guy, totally out of it, getting married and if it wasn't for him, part of his actions in his whole life would set the stage for that event to happen. It was also an eerie reminder of this scene at the end of 'The Normal Heart' where there is this wedding at the deathbed of Felix. That was what moved me most.

EDGE: How's Larry's health now?

Jean Carlomusto: He is doing fabulously. Not only is he out of the hospital but he's getting his strength back. He's continuing to write. He's working on 'The Normal Heart' part two and hoping to get that produced.

Larry Kramer in" Love and Anger" can be viewed on HBO On Demand until July 26, and is available anytime on HBO Now and HBO Go.