Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo

Celluloid Activist is the biography of gay-rights giant Vito Russo, the man who wrote The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies, commonly regarded as the foundational text of gay and lesbian film studies and one of the first to be widely read. But Russo was much more than a pioneering journalist and author. A founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and cofounder of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), Russo lived at the center of the most important gay cultural turning points in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. His life as a cultural Zelig intersects a crucial period of social change, and in some ways his story becomes the story of a developing gay revolution in America. A frequent participant at "zaps" and an organizer of Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) cabarets and dances--which gave the New York gay and lesbian community its first social alternative to Mafia-owned bars--Russo made his most enduring contribution to the GAA with his marshaling of "Movie Nights," the forerunners to his worldwide Celluloid Closet lecture tours that gave gay audiences their first community forum for the dissection of gay imagery in mainstream film. Biographer Michael Schiavi unravels Vito Russo's fascinating life story, from his childhood in East Harlem to his own heartbreaking experiences with HIV/AIDS. Drawing on archival materials, unpublished letters and journals, and more than two hundred interviews, including conversations with a range of Russo's friends and family from brother Charlie Russo to comedian Lily Tomlin to pioneering activist and playwright Larry Kramer, Celluloid Activistprovides an unprecedented portrait of a man who defined gay-rights and AIDS activism.

"Schiavi tells a compelling story in this biography--from his re-creation of life on the streets of East Harlem and in Greenwich Village of the 1960s and 1970s to the way he conveys Russo's excitement about his film research and popular education to his account of the AIDS years in New York City."--John D'Emilio, Italian American Review

"In [Schiavi's] hands Russo's life is both fascinating in its own right and a window into a larger milieu of activism during two critical decades."--Italian American Review Best Special Interest Books, selected by the American Association of School Librarians

Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

Finalist, Gay Memoir/Biography, Lambda Literary Awards

Finalist, Over the Rainbow Selection, American Library Association

Author: Michael Schiavi
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 05/10/2011
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.77lbs
Size: 9.80h x 7.24w x 1.03d
ISBN: 9780299282301


Award: Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2011
Choice 09/01/2011

About the Author

Michael Schiavi is associate professor of English and coordinator of English as a second language at New York Institute of Technology's Manhattan campus. His articles have appeared in Cinema Journal, Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, and College Literature.