My Dear Friend of 25 Years Supports Jerome and the Arts

Two weeks ago, out of the blue, I received a generous financial donation to The Jerome Project from one of my oldest San Francisco friends, Christopher. We met in San Francisco during the summer of 1990. Christopher has been a constant supporter of my various art endeavors. He housed me in Washington DC when I went to the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art to research Jerome's papers, he calls regularly to see if I am still above-water managing this huge project, he sent me his lovely picture of Jerome to add to the repository, and most recently, he came through with production funds I needed for the next stage of the project.

Lauren O'Connor's Thoughts on Preserving Jerome Caja

Check out this wonderful Jerome post by Lauren on Tumblr (Bay Area Video Coalition Preservation Department -- January 27, 2015). She is a great ambassador for The Jerome Project. Lauren tirelessly put in hundreds and hundreds of hours converting analog video of Jerome frame-by-frame to museum-quality digital format. She worked on Jerome video for over six months.

Lauren loves Jerome! Every time I'd stop by BAVC, she would greet me with a huge grin and tell me a new crazy story about Jerome. Needless to say, we had a lot of laughs during this process.

Thank you, Lauren, for all your hard work. The digital files you created are the meat & potatoes of my film!

The Jerome Project Collaborates with the San Francisco Cinematheque

Jerome is going to be in a new group show! This is the fifth annual art auction and benefit celebrating San Francisco Cinematheque. The Jerome Project is donating Anna van der Meulen's fabulous photo triptych of him. This piece will be on sale and the proceeds will go to the SF Cinematheque and the new documentary film being made on Jerome.

Years ago Anna donated these film negatives to us, and we are producing new, signed, limited-edition runs of her work. The purchaser will also receive a special credit in the documentary film.

Lastly, thank you Noah Cowan (Executive Director of the San Francisco FIlm Society) for spreading the word about The Jerome Project and helping us get Jerome into this show!

The Fifth Annual Art Auction & Benefit celebrating San Francisco Cinematheque

"Please JOIN US at the Center for New Music for a special reception and silent art auction—including fabulous food, libations and music from DJ Wobbly with many artists and filmmakers in person—in celebration and support of San Francisco Cinematheque and our 55th year of exhibiting cutting-edge avant-garde film and video art. Over 50 international, national and regional artists have contributed artworks to this year’s stellar exhibition of photography, painting, collage, sculpture and multimedia installation."

The Beginnings of my Documentary Film on Jerome

Big thanks to the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) for awarding The Jerome Project the Preservation Access Program grant! Thank you Scott England, Matt Flynn, Stevyn Polk, David Faulk, Michael Johnstone, Chuck Mobly, Adam Klein, and The Jerome Caja Estate for entrusting me with your video. BAVC you rock! You kickstarted my production by digitizing 100+ hours of video (16 terabytes of data). I also want to give a very special shout out to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for funding this grant.

Lastly, if anybody out there has any video on Jerome Caja, please contact us and let's talk about digitizing it.

"Art/AIDS/America" directed & co-curated by Dr. Jonathan D. Katz

"Art/AIDS/America examines 30 years of artistic production made in response to the AIDS epidemic in the United States." -- This show is presented in two parts at the ONE Archives Gallery & Museum and the West Hollywood Library. This is just a taste of what is to come. Twenty percent of the collection is now on display until September 6th. Then the entire show will be exhibited at the Tacoma Art Museum, and it will eventually travel to other cities in the US.

If you are in Los Angeles before September 6th, don't miss this chance to see two significant Jerome pieces (Little Yellow Angels & The Shroud of Curad). Lastly, Jonathan is one of our art advisors on The Jerome Project, and we are really grateful to have a veteran queer academic on our board. Thank you Jonathan!

Visual Storytelling by Bruce Block

A big thanks to veteran filmmaker Bruce Block for his three-day "Visual Storytelling" class at Lucas Film in the Presidio. It was insightful and helpful for mapping out the layers of art direction in my film on Jerome. Hands-down this was the best continuing education class the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) has offered. Bruce gave me the vocabulary needed to communicate my artistic ideas effectively to my crew. His graphs and charts for creating design roadmaps are golden. I also love how he can boil down a film to its one basic “Rule.”

Because Jerome has been so marginalized, we (the audience) need to see the bigger picture. Bruce confirmed my idea that using a wide-screen format for my film will give a broader perspective on Jerome and pull him out of the periphery.

I highly recommend Bruce's book "The Visual Story" too. It will enhance how you use the visual elements of your film to tell your story. If you ever get a chance to see him speak in person, treat yourself. He is entertaining and informative, and he will give you key storyboard techniques that are essential to crafting a beautiful film.

Website: www.bruceblock.com

by Anthony Cianciolo

Piecing Together Jerome Caja's Life Story

I just want to give a huge thanks to Daniel Nicoletta for all his help this past year putting me in contact with key people in Jerome's life. Daniel has been instrumental in locating privately held pieces of Jerome's artwork that have not been seen publicly in more than 20 years.