Remembering the Man

Remembering the Man, dirs. Nickolas Bird & Eleanor Sharpe, 2015 Australia, 83 min. 💖

Friday, June 16, 7:00pm, Victoria Theatre: Bay Area Premiere

Wednesday, June 21, 4:00pm, Castro Theatre

Remembering the Man

Last year, Frameline screened the wonderful feature film Holding the Man (IMDb page • official trailer • DVD or rent/buy streaming • paperback), based on the memoir by Tim Conigrave (pictured, left) about his lifelong (but all too brief) love affair with John Caleo (pictured, right). The two met as schoolboys and wove in and out of one another’s lives for more than fifteen years, only to find out that they both had HIV. Tim nursed John through his final days and then wrote his memoir, only just finishing it before he himself passed away. That memoir — a best-selling book in Australia when it came out in 1995, later adapted into a play and then last year’s film — and the activism stirred in them by their diagnosis, are the lasting legacy of a beautiful love story.

Remembering the Man is a documentary about Tim and John, featuring wonderful interviews with the people in their lives and photos and film footage going all the way back to high school. I only wish Tim and John could be here to share it with us, but absent that, this documentary is a delightful tribute to these two fabulous people. Definitely a MUST SEE — and if you missed Holding the Man last year, check the links above.

Remembering the Man • IMDb page • official website • official trailer • Facebook • buy the DVD (PAL format, sadly not suitable for most US television sets)