Charles Lum: This Is Where I Get Off

Special, US 2021, 73 min., engl. OV

By: Charles Lum

We are happy to welcome Charles Lum’s long-time friend and collaborator Todd Verow at the Pornfilmfestival.

Charles Lum, who sadly died much too early in 2021, was a warmhearted and much appreciated regular at the Pornfilmfestival for many years. We are very happy to celebrate his filmmaking with this tribute to him. And we are even happier that through his last will, the Best Experimental Short Film at the Pornfilmfestival will be endowed with a cash prize of 500 Euro.

Jürgen Brüning

A tribute to Charles Lum’s life told through his work as a film maker. Featuring Super-8 films Charlie shot as a teenager in the 1970s up to the last film he made about his battle with AIDS related lymphoma. Charlie AKA Clublum was a much-loved and valued member of our queer and film community, whose films defied the taboos and stigmas of sex, sex in public places and sex with HIV. His films embody a quirky earnestness and a wacky and wicked sense of humor and always the utter delight and pleasure of another body.

Todd Verow

About Charles Lum:

Charles Lum (1958–2021) was a New York based artist working in video using documentary and cinematic narrative, photo and performance.

A 2004 MFA in Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Charles was also a career Location Manager and Director’s Guild of America Assistant Director with twenty years experience scouting and managing feature film and television commercial locations across North America. Credits include: “Wall Street”, “Beat Street”, “CHUD”, “Angel Heart”, “Sid & Nancy”, “Mississippi Burning”, “Fatal Attraction” and commercials for most major advertisers.

Lum’s short video collection has been exhibited internationally. Varied in content, most works deal confrontationally with gay sexuality ethics and how the changing realities of HIV affect culture and personal experience. Programmed regularly at prominent Gay Film Festivals, Charles has presented work in academic lecture and a variety of art and cinema venues including: The Anthology Film Archives; The British and Irish Film Institutes; The George Eastman House; le Grande Cinema REX, Paris; the Svetozor Cinema, Prague; the Tel-Aviv Cinematheque; the Redcat @ Walt Disney Hall, LA; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Association of The Bar of the City of New York; the Queens Museum of Art; and as part of the 2006 AIDS Conference, The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

For additional information, see clublum.com (archived version).

Please note our pandemic rules and ticket information