Filmography

2021

  • AIDS DIVA: The Legend of Connie Norman, directed by Dante Alencastre
    includes footage from Wrecked For Life (1993)


2008

  • Red Velvet, directed by Bruce Dickson
    Production Designer, Art Director, Director of Concept Design, CGI Animation


1999

  • Guinevere, directed by Audrey Wells
    Cameo as man in black catching the falling woman, artist Marischa Slusarski, in the party scene


1992


Video Works by John Goss

2020

  • Kāne'ohe (video short), 3:52
    Director, hula dancer


1993

  • Wrecked for Life: The Trip and Magic of Trocadero Transfer, 59:30
    Origins of the gay dance underground at San Francisco's legendary Trocadero Transfer. Firsthand accounts of the all-night theme parties, chemical cocktails, and non-stop beat of gay culture from 1978-1983. Click here for a clip.


1992

  • Altered Boys (video compilation documenting guerilla street theater performance)

  • Flowing Hearts: Thailand Fights AIDS, 32:00
    A document of grass-roots AIDS education in Thailand. Segments include the unique cultural approach of The White Line Dance Troupe, who combine traditional Thai dance, modern dance and Thai popular music in their educational performances. Also included are scenes of safer sex instruction from a gay bar owner; health care information from the Director of the Thai Red Cross AIDS program; and the history of FACT, the Fraternity for AIDS Cessation in Thailand, a group begun by gays, who are now at the forefront of the struggle to educate all segments of their society.

  • Bangkok (Fighting AIDS), 6:00
    This music video segment from "Flowing Hearts" blends together traditional Thai dance with popular Thai rock music. The song lyric is the complete Thai name of Grung Thep (Bangkok), City of Angels. The heart of this peaceful Kingdom is attacked by AIDS monsters and there seems to be no hope until condoms prove to be effective weapons. The dance reflects traditional conflicts between good and evil, in a form unique to Thai culture.


1990

  • Forbidden Planet (performance documentation)


1989

  • "Out" Takes, 13:00
    Gay sensibility, homophobia and gender roles on broadcast television are "outed" by juxtaposing scenes from two childrens' shows popular in the United States and Japan. Excerpts from "Pee Wee's Playhouse" are compbined with scenes from "Maido Osawaga Seshimasu" (We're Always Making Trouble), a prime time Japanese sitcom. Movie critic Rex Reed "outs" himself with his campy put-down of Pee Wee (Paul Reubens), exposing the self-perpetuating Hollywood closet and the perceived subversive threat of that show's gay subtexts. Reed's affected opposition to Pee Wee, and Reuben's techniques of innuendo, double entendre and gender switching, appear equally repressed compared to the Japanese series in which boys compare their physical attributes in public toilets and pop erections on cue.

  • Stiff Sheets, 19:00 (excerpt)
    An anonymous collective of gay artists stage a mock fashion show to indict public officials who refuse to provide care and facilities for persons with AIDS in Los Angeles. Performed on the grounds of the county hospital during a week-long vigil sponsored by ACT UP, this "Fabulous Fascist Fashion Show" highlights the latest designs--from activist sportswear and hospital attire to an outrageous bridal finale. Humor becomes a potent weapon, underscoring the seriousness of this struggle and targeting its enemies by name.


1987


  • Pink Life (performance documentation)

1986


1985

  • Wild Life, 40:00
    This video portrait of two gay 15-year-old Latino youths blends documentary style with fantasy segments in which the boys act out their "wild" day in Los Angeles. We see them change into their "wild style" clothes on the street, cruise around "gay city," and "throw attitude" with friends at the gay park. Along the way they answer questions about the nature of being gay, relationships with friends and lovers, style and image, and their use of gay language. As the piece progresses, the positions of fact and fiction overlap, highlighting the contradictions in their stories and in the artist's own method of constucting this "wildlife documentary."


1983

  • Extremities (broadcast on KCET, Los Angeles Public Television on Sep 23, 1983)

  • Celeb-ration


1981

  • Presentiments, 9:28

  • Be There, Aloha, 2:10

  • Digital Reflections I, 4:53 (with Frank Deitrich and Deborah Gorchos)

  • Digital Reflections II, 4:46 (with Frank Deitrich and Deborah Gorchos)


1980

  • Boys Will Be Beuys

  • Language Exercise, 4:00 (with Kurt Heintz)

  • Art Attack/Making Art

  • Glasses

  • Fooling Myself

  • Dixie

  • Artbox

  • The Naked, the Damned, and Their Children

  • The Pilot (with music by Eric Leonardson, documentation of live "performed" video and audio loop processing)

  • Yacking Media (multi-monitor work)

  • Art-a-lectics (performance documentation)

  • Video Drawings (B&W)

  • Structure <--> Meaning (installation B&W documentation)

  • Eclipse Piece (installation B&W documentation)