10. Silverlake Life: The View From Here (1993)

What? — Tom Joslin and Mark Massi, two longtime lovers residing in a Hollywood neighbourhood, share a love that knows no boundaries and a debilitating illness still misunderstood and stigmatized by society. Silverlake Life is a collection of video journals recorded by the couple to shed light on the rapid physical degeneration experienced by thousands of AIDS-afflicted American middle-class citizens just like them.

This straightforward first-person film charts the deterioration in the quality of the couple's day-to-day existence, as seemingly effortless tasks such as carrying groceries to the car and cleaning one's fingernails become agonizing reminders of a body under siege. However many blows the disease progressively hit them with, their inspiringly resolute attitude shines naturally as they take their impending doom in stride.

Handheld video entries about the numerous health issues that bog them down are intercut with disagreements and tender moments shared by the two men, demonstrating the extent of their kinship and the strong foundation their love rests on. The filmmakers also drop in a few excerpts of the couple in their heyday during the rabble-rousing, gay activism of the 70s. Some of the film's most poignant instants are found in the juxtaposition of their current decrepit state to the youthful bliss evident in the passionate embraces they share on video footage Tom shot some 15 years earlier.

Silverlake Life also holds the distinction of having one of the most heartrending and unforgettable scenes I've ever seen: a sobbing Mark serenades the corpse of his former lover with "You are my Sunshine" while trying his best to keep his emotional composure and retain a steady grip on the camera, pointing at Tom's lifeless body.

Why? — The 1993 Grand Jury Prize - Documentary at Sundance and winner of the coveted Teddy award at Berlin, Silverlake Life is a film that stays with you long after you've rewound the reel. Ask anyone who's ever screened this harrowing testament to the triumph of the human spirit over disease: the numbing feeling one experiences after the viewing leaves you at a loss for words. Looking inward for a proper way to approach the film critically necessitates the time to distance oneself from the immediacy of the home video realism, as any analysis of the film's stylistic sophistication seems utterly inconsequential and even callous after the fact.

Moreover, many viewers feel as though they have just seen something they shouldn't have, and this contributes to the political statement the film unwillingly puts forward: that the lives of AIDS-ridden patients and homosexuals doesn't belong locked away from the fragile eyes of society, but need to be circulating in the public sphere. The closet days are over.

Yet, unlike many other films with AIDS-driven gay storylines released that same year —1993 was a banner year for AIDS-themed fare as the number of diagnosed HIV cases in the U.S. reached its peak — Silverlake Life is an utterly authentic document of a couple's ill-fated demise. As they set out to document the experience for themselves, they take a self-reflexive approach by frequently signalling the presence of the camera.

It's an in-your-face archival treasure that doesn't shy away from exposing the day-to-day struggles faced by PWAs (Person With AIDS) or the complexity and beauty of Mark and Tom's loving relationship. Although the couple didn't set out to construct a political statement about governmental inaction in the face of a widespread disease offing the neglected gay community, its unselfconscious portrayal of a committed gay relationship in the process of dying made it a powerful tool for gay and AIDS organizations to utilize in their fight for public attention, acceptance and financial assistance.

With the newfound accessibility of video technology and television's increasing interest in programming personal essay films, Silverlake Life paved the way for such personal documentaries to be incorporated into schools' curriculum and to receive increased public funding.

Almost Made the Cut: Philadelphia (Jonathan Demme, 1993)

Hold your pink horses: the melodramatic, tame, straight-washed Tom Hanks-as-a-gay-martyr vehicle is still deserving of an honourable mention. As one of the many flicks released during Hollywood's sudden and short-lived interest in the disease, Philadelphia nevertheless served as a wake-up call for mainstream audiences to the magnitude of human devastation the disease was causing.

Next - The Complete Works of Bruce LaBruce

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