Experiencing Interruptions?

Fear and Desire: The Life and Death of Richard Hofmann

This first-ever documentary celebrates and commemorates the provocative work of the of the Neo-Expressionist artist and AIDS activist Richard Hofmann, a well-known figure in the East Village art scene of the 1980’s.

A ceaseless and prolific painter, the art of Richard Hofmann (b. 1954 – d. 1994) provides an unflinching window onto the tragic world of the young gay artist caught up in the AIDS epidemic which devastated New York just at the time as this unprecedented art scene was blossoming.  

Centered around a solo retrospective of the late artist mounted by the Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition in 2017, the documentary unfolds a series of interviews with curators, scholars, and former friends.

Educated at the Pratt Institute, his style has often been characterized as owing to the school of Neo-Expressionism, but his unique use of distorted figures and a multiplicity of baleful human faces is nowhere to be found except in his own work.

One critic noted that Hofmann “tackled the larger questions of sin and redemption, religion and homosexuality, suffering and ecstasy with fervid brushstrokes and layers of intense color.”

In addition to his monumental 9 x 15 canvases, he painted on everything from surfboards to packing crates, and produced murals which decorated such historic 80’s clubs as The Pyramid, Limbo Lounge, Danceteria, The Roxy and The Saint.

A contemporary and personal friend of David Wojnarowicz and many other artists who suffered the same fate, Hofmann’s work is a rare time-capsule whose bold colors and iconoclastic themes leap off the canvas perhaps even more today than back then.

  • David Ambrose
    Director
  • Heinrich von Kesseler
    Producer
  • Brian McCormick
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Art, Queer
  • Completion Date:
    December 31, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    6,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1920:1013
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • Mystic 2021 Film Festival
    Mystic, Connecticut
    United States
    October 24, 2021
    World Premiere
    Documentary Short
  • Lonely Wolf International 2022 Film Festival
    London
    United Kingdom
    April 29, 2022
    First International Premiere
    Two Semi-finalist Categories: Queer and Short Documentary
Distribution Information
  • Artabolic Arts Management
    Sales Agent
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - David Ambrose

David Ambrose is a co-founder of Art Not War and has spent the past 15 years producing and directing. He oversees all production, post-producing, analytics and social listening for Art Not War’s content.
His works have earned over two hundred million online views, 6 Pollies, 3 Reed Awards, and hundreds of millions of dollars of earned media through worldwide news coverage. In 2009 David executive produced the feature film, Monogamy, winner of Best Narrative at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2015 David directed Upworthy’s most popular piece of original content, Pay It Forward Pizza which earned over 50 million views. In 2016 he produced and co-directed the feature documentary that predicted the outcome of the presidential election based upon voter suppression. The film has been screened in 80 cities and cited in lawsuits by the ACLU, Common Cause, and League of Women Voters. Currently, David is an entrepreneur in residence at Civic Hall in New York where he is developing a video sharing platform for crowdsourcing video stories called Onstack.

Add Director Biography