Gert’s Boys: Documentary Film, AIDS Activism, and Collective Memory��Scholarship, archives, and teaching through ethnographic filmmaking�

Sara L. Schwartz, PhD, MSW, MA

University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

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Journey

• Education
• 1994: BA in Psychology, UC Boulder.
• 2001: MSW, Virginia Commonwealth University.
• 2007: PhD in Social Work, Portland State University.
• 2007-2009: Post Doctoral Fellowship, UC Berkeley.
• 2025: MA in Visual Anthropology, U. Southern California.
• 35+ years LGBTQ+ Allyship & AIDS activism as a cisgender, heterosexual, white, Jewish woman.
• 7+ years of scholarship on the contaminated blood supply and its impact on the bleeding disorder community.
• 7 years service on the National AIDS Memorial Board of Directors following service on the Board of The HIV Story Project.

Ethnographic Film

A genre of filmmaking rooted in field-based anthropological research.

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A visual articulation of research.

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Inherently interdisciplinary.

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Gert’s Boys weaves together trauma-informed social work, visual anthropology, archives, and history.

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Let’s Watch Gert’s Boys

https://vimeo.com/1009743454

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Research Methods

• 30+ hours of open-ended video recorded interviews:
• Clinical methods for rapport building; engagement.
• 18+ months of participant observation:
• Monthly AIDS Quilt repair workshops.
• AIDS Quilt transport (2020).
• Display support and attendance.
• Archival Research:
• The Library of Congress.
• Gert’s personal archives.
• Historical collections (Getty, Prelinger, UCSF, etc.) .

Analysis

• Constructivist Grounded Theory – informed approach:
• Meaning co-constructed via long-term engagement.
• Transparent engagement with positionality.
• Emphasis on relationship, process, & iteration.

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• Four of Gert’s boys serve as thematic anchors:
• David: the beginning.
• Roger: entry into caregiving and activism.
• Jack: the launch of The NAMES Project.
• Joey: The Quilt’s expansion and losses preceding HAART (1996).

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Classroom Application

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• Activities:
• Screen Gert’s Boys.
• Conversation with Gert [Zoom].
• Examine textiles for trauma narratives and recovery across communities.
• Explore archives: online AIDS Quilt, the Library of Congress, the USC ONE Archives, the OR Queer History Collective, OSU Queer Archives, etc.

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• Related films, readings & media:
• How to Survive a Plague [book & film].
• Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt.
• National AIDS Memorial Surviving Voices Films [aidsmemorial.org]
• Fresh Air interview with Sarah Schulman and a visit to her video archives:
• ACT UP Oral History Project.
• Instagram: The AIDS Memorial.

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Scholarship

• Interdisciplinary collaboration:
• Social workers offers a distinct lens complimenting other disciplines.
• Expanded methodological and analytic toolbox.
• Dissemination beyond traditional social work academia.

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• Methodological Contributions:
• Creativity as an analytic resource.
• Triangulation across methods and sources.
• New engagement with existing data [archives, visual arts].
• Experimentation with data collection techniques.
• Data analysis and interpretation that align with PAR principles.

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Interdisciplinary Strengths

• Clinical skills and trauma-informed approaches were essential for this project.
• Perspectives across cinema, music composition, anthropology, and social work.
• Film inspired Gert to organize her archives.
• Flexibility in deliverables.
• Sharing Gert’s voice authentically and ethically, in alignment with her wishes.
• Responsive to the wishes of the post Covid student-in-the-higherEd-environment.

Interdisciplinary Challenges

• Ethics as an ongoing negotiation, not a checklist.
• Learning camera-based methods in practice.
• Respecting shifting consent.
• Trust across changing roles and spaces.
• Financial burdens and archival access.
• Alternative peer-review system navigation [ie: film festivals]
• Traversing disciplines with no home or roadmap.

Questions? Comments?

Thank you for this opportunity.

Sara L. Schwartz

saraschw@usc.edu