Content Description
The Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. papers document the professional and personal activity of the film director, writer, documentarian, and producer of independent gay cinema, Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. (May 27, 1943 - July 29, 1987), dating from 1966 to 1987.
The collection contains film scripts, screenplays, and screen treatments with several notes; pre-production material, such as documents related to film castings, budget, copyrights, and other legal documents; photographs and film stills; relevant negatives and film slides; publicity material, such as flyers, ad sheets, press releases, press kits, and theater tickets; drafts and final copies of Bressan's articles, public reactions to his films, including Buddies (1985), Abuse (1983), Thank You, Mr. President (1983), and Juice (1983), newspaper and magazine clippings; personal and professional correspondence, books with inscriptions, postcards, handwritten notes, and other ephemera.
The collection includes personal correspondence, such as letters, postcards, and handwritten notes from several people, including Robert Woods, and friends. The folder Harvey Milk includes correspondence from Harvey Milk to Bressan in September 1977 and a few protest documents related to Milk’s assassination in 1978. Under the Biographical Files, the sub-series titled Frank Capra indicates Bressan’s affiliation to Capra’s work, including correspondence from and about Frank Capra, a typed script of the film “Meet John Doe” (1941) with a personal inscription by the director to Arthur J. Bressan Jr., and several drafts of Bressan’s article on Frank Capra.
Apart from scripts and pre-production material of Bressan’s well-known films, such as the films Abuse (1983), Juice (1984), Passing strangers (1974), the documentary Gay USA (1977), and others, there are several unreleased scripts, screenplays, and proposals. Other writings include the novelization of the Buddies by Michael Mannion, Bressan’s college paper “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” and a memorial article by the American LGBT activist, film historian, author, and good friend of Bressan, Vito Russo (1987). The collection does not contain film reels or any audiovisual material.
Dates
- 1966-1987
Conditions Governing Access
Box 1, Folder 42 restricted until 2037, July 28.
Biographical / Historical
Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. (May 27, 1943 - July 29, 1987) was a film director, writer, documentarian, and producer of independent gay cinema. He was born and raised on West 68th Street in the Lincoln Square area of Manhattan, New York City. Educated in public and then parochial schools (Iona College), he completed his Master of Art in American Civilization, focused on the “Cinema of Frank Capra” at New York University. He became a high school teacher and then a Federal Director/ Administrator of Education. While teaching high school sophomores in a New York City ghetto, he got involved in filming, renting a Super 8 camera, and having his students create their films. Soon after, the 25 years-old Bressan left academia and focused on making films.
His first film was a silent Super 8 short (18min., black and white) titled Boys in 1969. The same year, he moved to San Francisco, California, and participated in the first San Francisco Gay Film Festival with his short film. In 1971 he worked in the film industry as an editor in the American Indian Alcatraz Trial Defense Film. A year later, he created the documentary short Coming out (16mm, 10mm, color), which participated in the first official San Francisco Pride march in 1972. Passing strangers (1974) was his first featured film, which earned him the Best Director Award at the 1974 San Francisco Erotic Film Festival. In 1977, Bressan filmed the featured documentary Gay USA, showcasing LGBT Pride celebrations across the country during Anita Bryant’s anti-gay crusade. Bressan’s last project, Buddies(1985), was the first featured film about AIDS and Bressan’s most well-known film. Other films include Forbidden Letters (1979), Family Affair (1982), Thank You, Mr. President (1983), Abuse (1983), Pleasure Beach (1983), Juice (1984) and Daddy dearest (1984).
Bressan died of AIDS in 1987.
Filmography
Boys (short, 1969) Coming out (documentary short, 1972) Passing Strangers (1974) Gay USA (documentary, 1977) Forbidden Letters (1979) Family Affair (1982) Abuse (1983) Pleasure Beach (1983) Thank You, Mr. President (1983) Juice (1984) Daddy dearest (1984) Buddies (1985)Extent
3 cubic feet.
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Film scripts and pre-production material; photographs, stills with relevant negatives and film slides; publicity material, drafts and final copies of articles, newspaper and magazine clippings; personal and professional correspondence; books with inscriptions, postcards, handwritten notes, and other ephemera of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. (May 27, 1943 - July 29, 1987), one of the pioneers of independent gay cinema in the 1970s and ‘80s, documenting his personal and professional activity, from 1966 to 1987.
Custodial History
Based on “The Backstory on the Films and Papers of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. and How We Got To Where We Are Today on The Bressan Project”, By Jenni Olson (March 2019)
A year or two after Arthur J. Bressan Jr died in 1987, his sister, Roe (Rose Marie) Bressan, donated all his papers and film elements to Frameline in San Francisco. The collection (unprocessed) was held at Frameline’s storage space at Iron Mountain. In 2002, Frameline changed offices, and it was decided that all the materials (the papers and film elements) would be given to the San Francisco Media Archive (the non-profit arm of Oddball Films). Roe Bressan had also moved, and Frameline could no longer reach her. SFMA kept the collection safe without processing or preserving it.
Jenni Olson (LGBT film historian and archivist), a former staff at Frameline, maintained contact with Frameline and the SFMA/Oddball. In the 1990s and 2000s, Olson had been in touch with festivals interested in Arthur’s films. She also had tried unsuccessfully to re-establish contact with Arthur’s sister. In 2016, Olson found Joe Rubin, one of the founders of the indie distributor Vinegar Syndrome, who had come into possession of the original 16mm negative of Arthur’s film Buddies (1985). Despite their discussions, they couldn’t preserve or use the material as they couldn’t find the right holder or estate. Around this time, Frameline deposited the film elements (not donated) at UCLA Film & Television Archive for safe keeping (and later for preservation). UCLA finally preserved Bressan’s films. In December 2017, Jenni managed to find Rose Marie Bressan. Together, they created the Bressan Project and coordinated efforts to restore and re-release all of the films of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.
In March 2019, Jenni Olson contacted RMC Human Sexuality Curator Brenda J. Marston, asking for a home for the papers of Arthur J. Bressan. In January 2020, 3 cubic feet of Arthur’s J. Bressan, Jr. papers were purchased and accessioned by RMC.
General
Collecting program: Human Sexuality Collection.
- AIDS -- Drama
- AIDS activists.
- Abuse (Motion picture)
- Buddies (Motion picture)
- Feature films.
- Gay erotica.
- Gay liberation movement.
- Gay politicians -- United States.
- Gay pornography.
- Gay rights -- United States.
- Homosexuality
- Juice (Motion picture)
- Milk, Harvey
- Motion picture producers and directors.
- Motion pictures.
- My Night at Norma's (Motion picture)
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)
rareref@cornell.edu