James Wentzy

An unfashionably joyous celebration of safe sex (group masturbation parties) and affection (fondling in public places) among gay men.

For the 2016 Day With(out) Art, Visual AIDS commissioned COMPULSIVE PRACTICE, a video compilation of compulsive, daily, and habitual practices by nine artists and activists who live with their cameras as one way to manage, reflect upon, and change how they are deeply affected by HIV/AIDS. This hour-long video program was distributed internationally to museums, art institutions, schools and AIDS organizations.

I Was a Jewish Sex Worker is a humorous, no-holds-barred autobiographical film about the director’s former career as a sex worker and his relationship with his Jewish family. From graphic, erotic massages to a revealing interview with his grandmother, Roth tells a unique tale and explores themes of sexual wellness, connection and self-realization. Featuring guest appearances by German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim and sexologist/performer Annie Sprinkle.

From the onset of the AIDS epidemic, author Larry Kramer emerged as a fiery activist, an Old Testament-style prophet full of righteous fury who denounced both the willful inaction of the government and the refusal of the gay community to curb potentially risky behaviors. Co-founder of both organization Gay Men's Health Crisis and the direct action protest group ACT UP, Kramer was vilified by some who saw his criticism to be an expression of self-hatred, while lionized by others who credit him with waking up the gay community — and, eventually, the government and medical establishment — to the devastation of the disease.

A 12-minute video produced for the 1996 MIX Film Festival. Jim Hubbard, the founder of MIX, asked Wentzy "to make it personal." It contains graphic demonstration of a condom being put on alongside of Hesse Helms, speeches by other reactionary political leaders, and stylized masturbation.

A six-minute short produced for the 1994 MIX Film Festival, based on the treatise of the then-anonymous Kiki Mason, and distributed at events and festivities during Stonewall 25.

AIDS Community Television weekly series, originally telecast September 16, 1996. Sunday October 11, 1992 Bring your grief and rage about AIDS to a Political Funeral in Washington DC. You have lost someone to AIDS. For more than a decade, your government has mocked your loss. You have spoken out in anger, joined political protests, carried fake coffins and mock tombstones, and splattered red paint to represent someone's HIV-positive blood, perhaps your own. George Bush believes that the White House gates shield him, from you, your loss, and his responsibility for the AIDS crisis. Now it is time to bring AIDS home to George Bush. On October 11th, we will carry the actual ashes of people we love in funeral procession to the White House. In an act of grief and rage and love, we will deposit their ashes on the White House lawn. Join us to protest twelve years of genocidal AIDS policy.

A twelve-minute video produced for the 1997 MIX Film Festival. The founder of MIX asked Wentzy to "make it personal." The video provoked a MNN public access hearing for whether it should be considered obscene and lacking artistic merit, to which they unanimously concluded that the video was, in fact, of serious, artistic, and political merit.