He was hired by the glossy magazine After Dark, writing film reviews, but he was horrified at the publication’s closeted policies. Schiavi writes robustly of the post-Stonewall era and its effect on Russo, who was starting to live the gay life out of the controlling eye of his family across the river in Jersey. Russo sought out gay subculture as a teen, spending as much time as he could with an out gay uncle and lesbian cousin, who included him in their social circles.Īfter high school, he became a film student at NYU, eventually moving to Greenwich Village and jumping in head first in Manhattan gay nightlife. In these chapters, Schiavi is rather slow out of the gate, with a florid style at times. Russo began as a starstruck gay kid in a repressed environment in New Jersey. He never stopped fighting, and he ended up on the front lines with Larry Kramer, to make the AIDS fight a political j’accuse against a system that wanted gays to disappear. His political life started during the Stonewall riots, where as Schiavi recounts, he was an observer the first night and a firebrand by the end of the weekend. Russo’s book, “The Celluloid Closet,” was just one aspect of Russo’s activism, both in and out of the movement, for LGBT civil rights and AIDS. Michael Schiavi wanted to write “The Celluloid Activist” because he couldn’t believe young gay activists didn’t know the scope of Vito Russo’s influence on gay America. University of Wisconsin Press, April 2011ģ20 pages $29.95 hardcover, $14.95 e-book “Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo” Health Resources and Services Administration website Larry Kramer (right) comforts Vito Russo in his California home several months before he died.

Celluloid Activist by Michael Schiavi