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AN UPDATE ON ALL THINGS JEROME

10/9/2023

Dear Jerome Lovers . . .

Thank you all for your patience, especially over the last few years when we hunkered down behind closed doors during the worst of COVID. I have been really productive during this time. Not only have I been working intensely on the film, but I have also been working on various exhibitions, publications, presentations and fundraising opportunities that I am excited to share with you.

Jerome’s brilliant, long lasting contributions to the world came out of the AIDS pandemic in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Unsurprisingly, 28 years after his death in 1995, his challenging art has reemerged and now thrives stronger than ever in the wake of another pandemic.

Jerome Loves to Revel in the Messiness of Humanity

When the world first tried to open back up in June of 2021 and we were all trying to find some new sense of normalcy from COVID lockdown, shockingly we found ourselves quarantined again and watched as everyone retreated back into their homes. During this time I was working with Anglim/Trimble Gallery on a solo Jerome exhibition. Nothing stopped that exhibition from happening. Mask mandates were back in place and community gatherings were either abruptly canceled or heavily monitored and extremely pared down.

Regardless, the show went on. FOUND: The Lost Art of Jerome Caja was a success on many fronts. Even with limited and staggered accessibility for viewing and little public programming, the show significantly moved the needle forward for Jerome, especially the film. The show teased out the ending to my documentary. My patience has paid off over all these years. I cannot wait to share it with you in its completed form. It is heart-felt, uncompromising, enlightening and totally in alignment with Jerome.

Now with that said, I am currently in the production phase, building a rough assembly cut of the documentary. The following highlights (all of which have propelled the film forward and many of which will be included in the film) are what I have been up to over the last several years.

"FOUND: The Lost Art of Jerome Caja" at Anglim/Trimble Gallery
(paintngs by Jerome, photographs by Anna van der Meulen)
Curated by Anthony Cianciolo
June 2021

EXHIBITIONS

Currently Jerome is included in the new Blum & Poe group exhibition titled "Pictures Girls Make": Portraitures, curated by Alison Gingeras. It is open to the public from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday and ends on October 21, 2023. If you are in the LA area it is not to be missed. (view blog post)
In May & June of this year I worked closely with Visual AIDS in New York to include Jerome in their group show titled “No Bios”, curated by Isis Awad. It was a special Pride exhibition and was also extremely well received. The show got a lot of eyes on Jerome, and I am following up with some key contacts for future East Coast Jerome exhibitions. (view blog post)
In June 2021 I curated a solo exhibition, FOUND: The Lost Art of Jerome Caja at Anglim/Trimble Gallery. It included 80+ paintings (most of which had not been on public display since Jerome’s passing in 1995). This exhibition also had a panel discussion about Jerome led by the infamous Joan Jett Blakk with special guests Adam Klein, Gerard Koskovich, Jessica Tanzer, and myself. It was a magical event! This was filmed and documented extensively. (view blog post)
In October 2019 I curated a pop-up Jerome show at SFMOMA with Visual AIDS at a book-launch party. I had more than 30 paintings on display, along with drag ephemera and club flyers. I screened a 15 minute excerpt from the doc that was edited by Bill Weber. This event also had a panel discussion that I participated in with Cliff Hengst and Justin Vivian Bond. More than 250 people attended. This was filmed and documented extensively. (view blog post)
In May of 2019 I curated the Jerome portion of the ABOUT FACE: Stonewall Revolt & New Queer Art exhibition at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago. It included 117 paintings, one of the largest exhibitions of Jerome's work since his death in 1995. Bernardine Caja (Jerome’s mother), Ed Caja (Jerome’s brother) and Anna van der Meulen (Jerome’s best friend) attended. Again, this was also filmed and documented extensively. (view blog post)
I am currently working with Anglim/Trimble Gallery to do a follow-up exhibition that compliments the show FOUND: The Lost Art of Jerome Caja. Stay tuned for details.
I continue to work on getting a major museum retrospective on Jerome. It is my hope to include this in the documentary as well as in the film’s educational and distribution plan.

"ABOUT FACE: Stonewall Revolt and New Queer Art" at Wrightwood 659
(Jerome Caja portion of the exhibition, 117 paintings)
Curated by Anthony Cianciolo
May 2019

PUBLICATIONS

Graham Feyl at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is working on his PhD dissertation, which is Jerome-centric. I am working with him to get him access to whatever he needs from the Jerome archive and repository.
Robert Barrett received a PhD at the University of California, Irvine, and wrote his dissertation on Jerome Caja, Joan Jett Blakk, Robert Glück and Steve Abbot (who also wrote about Jerome). Stay tuned for a link to a special Jerome excerpt from Robert’s dissertation that will be published and made available shortly. Robert currently teaches at UC Berkeley in the Division of Arts & Humanities.
Candystore's book of poems “Hi Angels” is dedicated to Jerome and uses his art as visual companion pieces for several of the poems, including the cover. This was made possible through the Shannon Michael Cane Memorial Fund, a grant they received for first time exhibitors at Printed Matter’s Art Book Fair. The limited edition run sold out immediately and shortly after, a second-run special edition called “DELUX Hi Angels” also sold out quickly. (view first blog post & view second blog post)
I recently contributed and wrote a new essay for the catalog for the ABOUT FACE: Stonewall Revolt & New Queer Art exhibition that was at Wrightwood 659. This is a beautiful coffee-table art book with several essays from famous queer academics, and it is in the final stages of production. Stay tuned for its release date. (pre-order your copy now)
I have also been extensively photographing and documenting more than a hundred newly unearthed Jerome paintings from private collections. Some of these images will make their way into the documentary. I am archiving the photos in the repository and will use them in a book that will come out after the release of the documentary. It is an ongoing process.

"ABOUT FACE: Stonewall, Revolt, and New Queer Art"
Pre-order for $65.00 through Phaidon
(hardcover, size 11.5 × 9.5 in)
December 2023

REVIEWS

Hank Trout wrote a review in June of 2021 on the exhibition FOUND: The Lost Art of Jerome Caja in A&U America’s AIDS Magazine. He interviewed me for the article. This was an online and print magazine found in doctor’s offices around the country. It was a four-page spread with full-color plates of Jerome’s art and B&W photos of Jerome that were also in the exhibition. (read the A&U review on pages 24-27)
Arthur Lubow wrote a review in August of 2019 on the exhibition ABOUT FACE: Stonewall Revolt & New Queer Art in the New York Times. It covered the entire show with a special spotlight on Jerome. Eggs Having Turkey Dinner appeared above-the-fold on the front page of the Times’ art section. I was also credited in the article for having curated the Jerome portion of the show. (read the NYT review)

"Hey Honey Triptych" by Anna van der Meulen in A&U Magazine
(black and white photographs, 11 x 16 inches each)
Created in 1993 and published in June 2021

PRESENTATIONS

In early November 2023 I will host an educational film-development field trip at Ninth Street Independent Film Center (IFC) for Jason Jakitus’s film students from Saint Mary’s College. My documentary on Jerome will be the centerpiece discussion.
In late September 2023, I was a guest lecturer in Ryan White’s Advanced Editing class at Cal State Monterey Bay. It was an amazing experience that led to two students offering their skills and talent in editing the documentary. I am now crafting special internships for them.
In June 2023, I did a private showing for a special curated gallery visit for Jeff Parker’s alumni group from the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William & Mary, which is also an art investing group. For them it was an introduction to Jerome’s work and an incentive to invest in brilliance when you see it in an artist early on, as Jeff did with Jerome. More than 40 people, including the directors of the museum, attended.
I have also been doing film presentations in private homes for Jerome collectors and ambassadors.

"Ryan White's Advanced Editing Class" at Cal State Monterey Bay
(Jerome lecture on working with challenging content)
Fall semester September 2023

DOCUMENTARY FILM

When I ventured on this crazy journey back in 2010 I wanted to shine a light on Jerome's brilliance as a Painter, Prankster, Performer and spotlight the cultural impact he had on queer San Francisco in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Over the years as I became inundated with Jerome’s work and life story, I realized the documentary also needs to explore — Who is the man behind the scary drag mask? Where is his place in the larger contemporary art narrative? And why is he not a household name like Hieronymus Bosch, Oscar Wilde and Divine?

With this new, deeper trajectory, I found a bizarre and fascinating story with a wildly different end to the film. Discovering a unique ending is what every documentarian grapples with, and it is why most docs never make it out of development. It all comes down to a really good transformational story that lands on an unexpected ending, and it has to be told in an interesting way that is unlike any other film out there.

I completely rewrote my film treatment with a five-act story structure and powerful new ending. This is now the scaffolding for the doc. It is complex, theatrical and cinematic.
I started storyboarding hand-drawn 2/D animation sequences that will be peppered throughout the film. They have a traditional fine-art look that compliments Jerome’s weird, witchy warmth.
I am privately workshopping the film with art advisors, film producers, and Jerome collectors who have been extremely supportive. Some are new and many of them have been with me since the inception of this project. Their response has been extremely helpful and affirming.
I have a new office at Ninth Street Independent Film Center (IFC), which is in San Francisco’s Civic Center area and in an office building that used to be the old Film Arts Foundation. I am part of a filmmaker residency and incubator program that is under the same roof as independent film organizations like Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), Frameline (LGBTQ+ Film Festival), Jewish Film Institute (JFI & Jewish Film Festival) and Center for Asian American Media (CAAM). I could not be positioned better at this stage of production.
I am cataloging all of my archival footage. This media is the foundation of the documentary, and it changed the final form of the film, which is now a three-part docuseries. This is a huge turn of events. Originally I set out to make a short, which then quickly turned into a feature, and appropriately is now a docuseries. This new three-part format allows for a definitive, more complex story on Jerome, and most importantly it allows the viewer to take Jerome (and his life story) in digestible bites. Docuseries are now the preferred format for viewers and streaming platforms.
I have over 75% of my principal photography in the can. This footage illustrates where Jerome is today. It includes interviews with Adam Klein, Ana van der Meulen, Bernardine Caja (Jerome’s mother), and several other family members in Ohio. The bulk of it was shot in San Francisco (my home & various galleries) and Cleveland (several homes of friends & family). The Cleveland shoot was intense. It was done over 7 days, 12 hours per day, and I got pure gold on film!
I am also recording audio interviews for the film and repository. I commissioned Paul Karlstrom to do a two-day intensive oral history interview with Anna van der Meulen. After the doc comes out, I will donate Anna’s interview to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art as a companion piece to Paul’s original oral history interview with Jerome.
I have been collaborating with the composer Daniel De Togni. We met through the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), and since then he has composed several beautiful classical piano pieces specifically for the film's score and soundtrack.
I have been filming and documenting all of the exhibitions I curated over the past years (including the most recent, FOUND: The Lost Art of Jerome Caja, and also the pop-up show I did at SFMOMA a while back), all of which will be highlights in the docuseries.
I am currently working with several couples who have significant collections of Jerome’s art that I had not seen before. They have been very generous with their time and allowed me to document their collections. They are also looking forward to having their art be a big part of the finished film.

"JEROME TRIPTYCH: Painter, Prankster & Performer"
(stills from VHS tapes in Jerome's estate)
circa 1985-1995

FUNDRAISING

I have been very fortunate to receive two early-on development grants from Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) that were funded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This is how I digitized more than 100 hours of video. I have also been given several residencies that include below-market-rate rent for office space in San Francisco by SFFILM and Ninth Street Independent Film Center, where I am currently.

Aside from that, I have never asked for or borrowed money from anyone. Most documentary filmmakers do multiple fundraising campaigns (development, production & distribution) and end up taxing their supporters. I chose to not go this route. Instead, I personally bank-rolled the other 85% of development and pre-production costs, with the help from a handful of generous angel investors close to the project who supported the film shoots.

This combined support has allowed me to move at a strong, secure pace with the film.

Now that I am squarely in the production phase, I will eventually need financing to pay for an editor and VFX animator in the post-production phase. This is the most costly part of the filmmaking process. In 8-10 months I will be positioned perfectly for the launch of my online finishing-fund campaign. Stay tuned for details.

PLEASE NOTE: This entire list of accomplishments and works in progress is abridged, and I am happy to share more in person with anyone interested. My office is always open to you. I am also open to all kinds of fundraising suggestions (private & public) and am happy to bring The Jerome Project to you in the privacy of your home if you are in the Bay Area or Greater Los Angeles area.

Thank You for Your Support

In closing, I want to give a big, heartfelt thank-you to everyone who has shared their stories and art with me. I could not be doing this without your generosity and help.

If anybody else wants to participate, again feel free to contact me. The project just keeps getting stronger the more people who love Jerome get involved. I am happy to meet and discuss practical, doable collaborations, especially with museums interested in a Jerome Caja retrospective. Any museum contacts and leads are greatly appreciated in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Cleveland, New York, and Europe. You can contact me here through The Jerome Project website and schedule a visit.

I look forward to updating again soon.

Workshopping Jerome out of my SF office at Ninth Street Independent Film Center
(development boards and paintings from the repository on display)
October 2023

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by Anthony Cianciolo

AN UPDATE ON ALL THINGS JEROME

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