Documenting a recent war

Volume 9 Number 2 February 11 - March 10 2013

Mimi Stern-Wolfe in a still from the documentary ‘All the Way Through Evening’
Mimi Stern-Wolfe in a still from the documentary ‘All the Way Through Evening’

Director Rohan Spong (BCA(Hons) 2004) recently returned to Melbourne, where his film about the HIV/AIDS crisis has been embraced. He spoke to Chris Weaver about his inspiration.

 

When New York poet Perry Brass sat down in the early 1990s to write a list of friends who died from HIV/AIDS, he stopped counting at 35. Others recalled up to 75 names.

Soon after, Mr Brass read that American World War II veterans knew on average seven colleagues killed during their conflict. By definition, AIDS had become a war.

That war informs All The Way Through Evening, the latest documentary by Melbourne filmmaker, Rohan Spong.

Mr Spong came across the subject while promoting another feature work.

“I was in New York City, assembling another project and I Googled some rare piano music,” he says.

“One of the first people who appeared in my search of recent performers was Mimi.”

‘Mimi’ is Mimi Stern-Wolfe, an elderly pianist and concert producer from Manhattan’s East Village. Ms Stern-Wolfe organises and performs an annual AIDS memorial concert – the Benson AIDS Series – performed since 1990 on World AIDS Day (1 December). 

Mr Spong arranged a meeting with Ms Stern-Wolfe, who fast became an inspiration.

“I had coffee with her and immediately fell in love with her crazy, hoarded apartment full of musical scores,” Mr Spong says.

“I thought she was just a really wonderful person and soon after she recounted the story of Eric Benson.”

Eric Benson was Ms Stern-Wolfe’s best friend. An erudite and thoughtful musician, Mr Benson died of an HIV/AIDS-related illness in 1988. His story was depressingly common in New York – a young gay man dying from a misunderstood, highly marginalised, disease. Many followed. 

HIV/AIDS first appeared in New York City in 1981. By 1994, it was the United States’ largest killer of men aged 25-44. Only the 1996 introduction of anti-retroviral drugs limited the mortality rate.

AIDS decimated Ms Stern-Wolfe’s East Village community. An engaging and dedicated social activist, she began preserving the memory and works of a disappearing artistic community.

Mr Spong admits to being shocked by the pandemic’s scale.

“I had no understanding of just how many people died,” he says.

“Yet the pandemic is a period of time people don’t talk about – it runs the risk of being forgotten.”

All The Way Through Evening follows Ms Stern-Wolfe as she prepares for the 2010 concert. Working tirelessly with trusted tenors, Ms Stern-Wolfe performs works by an ensemble of departed composers and lyricists.

What emerges is a portrait of a group who fought bravely against a horrific disease. These men were central to Ms Stern-Wolfe’s life – artists whose lively personalities and compositions deserve wider acclaim.

Mr Spong’s work differs from previous documentaries, which focus on the HIV/AIDS history of giant locales.

“There is already a body of work about the pandemic in whole cities, such as New York and San Francisco,” he explains.

“What I wanted to do was locate the story of an entire group of men in one woman’s life.”

Friends and partners are interviewed, while Mr Brass details in painful light the fear and suffering of his greatest inspirations. 

Mr Brass compiled the lyrics for the Chris DeBlasio song cycle that provides the film’s title. Few sights are as affecting as Mr DeBlasio’s piano performance during the inaugural Benson concert – he later succumbed to HIV/AIDS, along with supporting tenor Michael Dash.

The legacy is the music – haunting, yet unquestionably warm.

“The music itself was really beautiful,” Mr Spong recalls.

“Even though I had no classical training, I thought Mimi played some incredibly compelling pieces.”

Audiences share Mr Spong’s enthusiasm. Mr DeBlasio’s song cycle enunciated the difficulty of living with AIDS. Two works – ‘The Disappearance of Light’ and ‘Walt Whitman in 1989’ – end the documentary.

“People cry during those songs,” Mr Spong says.

“They cry because these men capture their experiences so beautifully that it transcends their own time with us on Earth. It emotes what that experience must have been like to people hearing it all these years later.”

Mr Spong views their courage and his portrayal of their struggle through a larger prism.

“Both my films celebrate the triumph of people who come up against great odds,” he says. 

“People assume that the films are going to be depressing, but they’re not. They’re films about how great we can be as humans – they celebrate achievement.”

All The Way Through Evening has exceeded expectations, receiving an extended season at Carlton’s Cinema Nova.

Skills learnt at the University underpin Mr Spong’s productions. Funding remains a constant concern, necessitating a hands-on approach. He is variously an editor, writer, director and producer – a cinematographic all-rounder.

Mr Spong’s advice for budding filmmakers translates beyond his industry – it forms a bigger picture of persistence and ingenuity.

“Ultimately you have to be passionate about a project to see it through for a year-and-a-half or two years,” he says.

As with Ms Stern-Wolfe, he is motivated by legacy.

“You see someone like her and get inspired. Mimi gives me hope that one day I too can leave behind a body of work.”

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