They're back, and they're still pretty queer, puckish and annoying as hell, and I mean all of that in the very best way!

ACT UP

Actually, like AIDS, they never went away, even if some of us did, but lately the videos have been few and far between. This month, in his latest documentary, "Fight Back, Fight AIDS: 15 Years of ACT UP on Video," James Wentzy, Dakota's answer to Leni Riefenstahl, assembles an extraordinary visual and noisy record of years of AIDS activism. The new work will be shown at the NY Lesbian & Gay Experimental Film Festival.

Over the span of its 15-year history, ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) has helped to transform the nation's consciousness about the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and made activism a vital part of the LGBT political landscape. Comprehensively documented by media activists and video collectives (Testing the Limits, GMHC Audio Visual Dept., and DIVA TV), the bold strategies, media savvy, and decidedly queer wit of ACT UP remains a fresh source of inspiration to today's artists and activists through the invaluable trove of images sampled in this dynamic program of AIDS activist video.

The place should be swarming with the people who made activism sexy.