Presented by Amy Halpern at March 14, 2004 Filmforum event:

BILL MORITZ

3/14/04

(who died just after midnight Friday, 3/12)

Amy Halpern

The last film we will watch is one that Bill Moritz made in 1975.

Bill Moritz was more than a great scholar, a filmmaker, good friend.

He was a gentle fighter for mental liberation.

Many of us may think of Moritz as a solitary.

But he also spent many years as a generous host

His green pea & banana curry was a masterpiece to reckon with.

And we must remind ourselves, especially after his long illness, that he was a crusader for the mental good of all.

He lived mostly as a radiantly healthy role model – He and his partner of many years shared a fascinating & elegant household. They occasionally had elaborate parties …

And the friends and associates that they invited, in those darker and more cloaked years of sexuality, ran the range from the most ghettoized of gays, from flamboyant to subdued in expression -

to the most comfortable and out. Also straight people.

And for all, Moritz and Bob Opel were beacons of health and love – an ideal Normalcy of excellent relation – with passion, collaboration, social commitment and creative output.

Their film-work together was very fine.

[One piece, a private commission - I don’t believe ever publicly shown - has

some of the most beautiful erotic camerawork I have ever seen. ]

(The Dr. Dick private piece)

As a model citizen Bill Moritz was devoted to the elevation, ease and delight of all.

We will now look at STAR TRICK, 7 minutes long, made in 1975 by William Moritz & Bob Opel, a film of an ecstatic audience leaving a theater

With Goldie Glitters, Ken Rodriguez, Charlie Airwaves, Blaze Lust, Lux Zircon, Tom O’Horgan, Pristine Condition, Dimitrie Kabbaz, Lee Mentley, and the people of San Francisco, i.e. the audience during two intermissions of the play HEARTBREAK OF PSORIASIS

Here it is, a celebration for us from the lovely Doctor Bill Moritz.

Back to Moritz page