SILVERLAKE LIFE: THE VIEW FROM HERE

Silverlake Life started as a video diary by Tom Joslin about his relationship with Mark Lassi and their life with the HIV virus. After their deaths, Peter Friedman, Tom Joslin’s student and friend continued telling the love story of Tom and Mark.

"I was faced with finishing a highly personal film, without the aid of the person whose vision it was. I knew I couldn't do it if I were constantly wondering what Tom would have done – I had to make it my own, or the film would have turned out to be a poor imitation of a Tom Joslin film. Ultimately, I realized that the premature loss of the creative vision that was Tom's life was central to what Silverlake Life was about.

While I’ve watched Tom, Mark and several other people I love become sick and die, I’ve become aware that AIDS is still an abstraction for most people who haven’t yet been personally affected. It is very, very difficult to see so much pain and sadness surrounded by so much ignorance and denial. I hope that those in Silverlake Life’s audience who already have personal experience with AIDS, will benefit from an honest and frank portrayal of one couple’s ordeal. And that those who don’t know what it’s really like will leave with a better appreciation of the gravity of the crisis." (Peter Friedman)

Awards: The Film Critics Award for Best Independent Film, Los Angeles 1993; Grand Jury Award and Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance 1993; Peabody Award; Best Public TV Documentary Worldwide, Rom; International Documentary Association Award, Los Angeles; Teddy Bear Award, Berlin 1993; Prix Italia, 1993

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