- In 1990, the legendary radical gay performance artist and actor, John Fleck, became famous as one of the "NEA 4" in a US Supreme Court case involving freedom of speech and charges of obscenity. His moving and often hilarious performance work, with its bold exploration of sexuality, religion and morality, is the subject of filmmaker Kevin Duffy's documentary. The film intercuts raw archival video, current footage--from performances at the New Museum in New York, California State University, Long Beach and other venues--with compelling interviews in a kaleidoscopic portrayal of this often misrepresented and maligned artist.—Kevin Duffy
- JOHN FLECK IS WHO YOU WANT HIM TO BE is the story of one of the most radical performance artists and actors of our time. It begins in 1990, the year that the Aids Memorial Quilt was created; ACT UP protested against Wall Street. In this same year, artists used images of the body--and their bodies themselves--to create art that confronted the status quo: government reluctance to deal with the AIDS crisis head on, conflated with a reactionary cultural and media conservatism fueled by the fear of AIDS. When the government reversed funding to Fleck, he fought back and won in the Supreme Court. John Fleck has continued to create and triumphed as an actor and artist in this story of a generation.—Anonymous
- Kevin Duffy's documentary John Fleck Is Who You Want Him to Be focuses on the legendary performance artist who in 1990, at the height of the so-called "Culture Wars" and the AIDS crisis, was the target of government-sanctioned homophobia, ultimately leading to an ambiguous U.S. Supreme Court ruling with implications for the freedom of speech, the separation of church and state, and government funding for the arts. In this film, which explores shifting identity and how we define ourselves in relation to the other, Duffy reinvents the documentary form, implicating the viewer in a dialogue with Fleck. He uses 25 years' worth of archival footage as a memory track to his profile of the revolutionary artist and ultimate survivor, including shocking performance footage not seen since the controversy.
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By what name was John Fleck Is Who You Want Him to Be (2019) officially released in Canada in English?
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