Tom Kalin (born 1962) is a

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

, producer, and Professor of Professional Practice in Film at

Columbia University in the City of New York Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, it ...

. His debut feature, '' Swoon'', is considered an integral part of the

New Queer Cinema "New queer cinema" is a term first coined by the academic B. Ruby Rich in '' Sight & Sound'' magazine in 1992 to define and describe a movement in queer-themed independent filmmaking in the early 1990s. It is also referred to as the "queer new ...

. In addition to his feature work, Kalin has created a number of short films, many of which are collected in the compilations ''Behold Goliath or The Boy With the Filthy Laugh'', ''Third Known Nest'' and ''Tom Kalin Videoworks: Volume 2''. Much of Kalin's work touches on issues of

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

(both modern-day and historical) and

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

. He was a member of two AIDS direct action groups,

ACT UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...

and

Gran Fury Emerging from ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in 1988, Gran Fury was an AIDS activist artist collective from New York City consisting of 11 members including: Richard Elovich, Avram Finkelstein, Amy Heard, Tom Kalin, John Lindell, Lor ...

. His work has won much critical acclaim and garnered a number of awards and nominations, including honors from the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, Tribeca Film Fest and a number of

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

and

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

film festivals. Kalin won the

Gotham Awards The Gotham Awards () are American film awards, presented annually to the makers of independent films at a ceremony in New York City, the city first nicknamed "Gotham" by native son Washington Irving, in an issue of ''Salmagundi'', published on ...

Open Palm Award (for '' Swoon'') and has been nominated for two

Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in ...

. Kalin's last feature film was ''

Savage Grace ''Savage Grace'' is a 2007 drama film directed by Tom Kalin and written by Howard A. Rodman, based on the book ''Savage Grace'' by Natalie Robins and Steven M. L. Aronson. The story is based on the highly dysfunctional relationship between hei ...

'', the story of the 1972

Barbara Daly Baekeland Barbara Daly Baekeland (September 28, 1921 – November 17, 1972) was an American socialite who was the ex-wife of Brooks Baekeland, the grandson of Bakelite inventor Leo Baekeland. She was murdered at her London home when her son, Antony Baekel ...

murder case.

Julianne Moore Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress and children's author. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent ...

stars as Baekeland. Tom Kalin has taught graduate-level filmmaking classes at

Columbia University School of the Arts The Columbia University School of the Arts (also known as School of the Arts or SoA) is the fine arts graduate school of Columbia University in Morningside Heights, New York (state), New York. It offers Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees in Film, ...

, and is currently lecturing at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. He is a 2011

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

Life and career

Early life and education

Tom Kalin was born into a lower middle class Irish-Catholic family in Chicago, Illinois. His household consisted of 11 siblings with the oldest being 19 years older than Kalin. Kalin received a BFA in painting from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

in 1984 and a MFA in Photography and Video from

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum a ...

in 1987.

Art and activism: Gran Fury & ACT UP

In the 1980s and 1990s, Tom Kalin worked with

and was one of the founding members of the AIDS activist artist coalition called

. Gran Fury created public service announcement videos such as "Kissing Doesn't Kill," part of a campaign that included postcard mailing and city bus advertisements, whose intent was to raise awareness of the failures in government response.

''Swoon''

During the 1990s, Kalin began a project called Third Known Nest where he made a short 3-4 minute film every year that reflected the loss and pain caused by the AIDS epidemic. In an interview with the

La Guardia and Wagner Archives The La Guardia and Wagner Archives was established in 1982 at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, New York, to collect, preserve, and make available primary materials documenting the social and political history of New York Ci ...

, Kalin describes his belief in the importance of filmmaking: "I think there's something really valuable about making work and being honest about it in very ugly times. It's easy to make work in the happy times of life, but what I think is beneficial to other people is to try to be honest about really painful, difficult times in your life, and I think of that as that. I think of me telling the truth about what happened in a kind of indirect way – they're lyrical, short films; they don't explain everything." '' Swoon'', Kalin's feature film debut in 1992, was based on the 1924

Leopold and Loeb Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr. (November 19, 1904 – August 29, 1971) and Richard Albert Loeb (; June 11, 1905 – January 28, 1936), usually referred to collectively as Leopold and Loeb, were two American students at the University of Chicago ...

murder case. Unlike ''

Rope A rope is a group of yarns, Plying, plies, fibres, or strands that are plying, twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have high tensile strength and can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger ...

'', the 1948

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

film about the same case, ''Swoon'' sought to depict a stylized allegory relevant for an era filled with fear about the AIDS crisis and anger towards an unresponsive government.Kramer, Gary M. (11 February 2017). "Bad times make great art: The AIDS crisis and the New Queer Cinema." Salon. Retrieved 13 June 2017. The reception to ''Swoon'' was mixed; the screening at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival caused criticism about the film's presentation of homosexual deviance.Benshoff, H. M., & Griffin, S. (2006). Queer images: A history of gay and lesbian film in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. p.226-227 The film's purpose was not negative representation but was instead inspired by anger towards social causes for injustices such as the AIDS crisis, and the 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick case that was used criminalize homosexuality. Kalin wanted to make a "radical, political movie, actually, in a genre form," setting his story in a film noir background. The total cost of the film in 1992 was $250,000; it was filmed in 16mm within 14 days.

Partial filmography

Director * ''

'' (2007) * ''The Robots of Sodom'' (2003) * ''Third Known Nest'' (1999) * ''Plain Pleasures'' (1996) * ''Nomads'' (1994) * ''Geoffrey Beene 30'' (1993) * ''Nation'' (1992) * '' Swoon'' (1992) Writer * ''Third Known Nest'' (1999) * ''

Office Killer ''Office Killer'' is a 1997 American comedy-horror film directed by Cindy Sherman. It was released in the fall of 1997 and stars Carol Kane, Molly Ringwald and David Thornton. Plot A magazine editor named Dorine, due to budget cuts, is for ...

'' (1997) * ''Geoffrey Beene 30'' (1993) * ''Nation'' (1992) * ''Swoon'' (1992) Producer * ''

I Shot Andy Warhol ''I Shot Andy Warhol'' is a 1996 biographical drama film about Valerie Solanas' life and her relationship with Andy Warhol. The film marked the feature film directorial debut of the Canadian director Mary Harron. The film stars Lili Taylor as ...

'' (1996) * ''

Go Fish Go Fish or Fish is a card game for approximately two to five players, often played by children. It might be similar to a game called ''Andare e piscere'' which was current in Italy at the end of the 15th Century, of which no contemporary descrip ...

'' (1994) (executive producer) * ''Swoon'' (1992) (co-producer)

References

External links

Tom Kalin at Internet Movie DatabaseTom Kalin
Faculty Page at

European Graduate School The European Graduate School (EGS) is a private graduate school that operates in two locations: Saas-Fee, Switzerland, and Valletta, Malta. History It was founded in 1994 in Saas-Fee, Switzerland by the Swiss scientist, artist, and therapist, ...

. Biography, bibliography, photos and video lectures
Photo of Tom Kalin

Tom Kalin
in th
Video Data Bank2008 ''Bomb Magazine'' Tom Kalin interviewed by Bette Gordon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalin, Tom 1962 births Living people American expatriates in Switzerland Columbia University faculty Academic staff of European Graduate School American gay writers American HIV/AIDS activists American LGBTQ film directors American LGBTQ rights activists American LGBTQ screenwriters University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Media alumni School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni