Wojnarowicz (2021) | agoodmovietowatch
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Wojnarowicz 2021

A bracingly unique documentary that imitates the frenetic, righteously angry collage of one artist's life

Our Take (by Emil Hofileña)

Even a straightforward documentary on the New York East Village visual artist David Wonjarowicz (pronounced VOY-nuh-ROH-vitch) would be thrilling, given the energy and the irreverence of his artworks especially during the AIDS epidemic from the 1980s to the 1990s. But director Chris McKim goes above and beyond, essentially imagining how Wojnarowicz would have directed his own film. McKim treats the movie like a collage in itself, expertly blending footage and sound together not just to capture the artist’s fury, but to remember how deeply he loved, transcending space and sickness. As an account of the underground New York art scene at the time, a profile on a supposed enfant terrible, and a tribute to all those who lost their lives to a disease accelerated by discrimination, Wojnarowicz is a beautiful, complex tapestry.

Notable Critics

"Prominently features self-depictions taken from his copious audio and visual archives to evoke his life and work with a bracing, tragic sense of immediacy."

— Richard Brody

"Skillfully edited by Dave Stanke, "F**k You F*ggot F***er" is a constantly moving collage, a locomotive piece propelling toward a bleak end, and that is Wojnarowicz's death."

— Ryan Lattanzio

Synopsis

A collage-like, incisive look at the life of writer, painter and thinker David Wojnarowicz, whose powerful, unapologetic way of seeing the world gave voice to queer rights at a critical time in US history.

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About the author

Emil Hofileña

Emil Hofileña

Emil Hofileña is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. He also writes as a theater critic, with work published in Rogue and Out of Print, among others. He’s probably crying over a movie or an episode as we speak.