Tom Joslin

Joslin was born in Melrose Mass in 1946 and spent his youth in Lynnfield and Cumberland He earned his BA at the University of New Hampshire in 1972 and his MFA four years later from the Rhode Island School of Design In addition to his filmmaking he taught at Hampshire College and at the University of Southern California Joslin began making short films in 8mm at the age of 14 His work included Blackstar Autobiography of a Close Friend 1976 a film about coming out and growing up as a gay filmmaker and Architecture of Mountains 1979 a dreambased experimental film In 1981 he chose to leave academia to try to make it as a writerdirector in Hollywood He teamed with Selise E Eiseman forming the Primary Colors Company while working as an uncredited casting assistant for Zoetrope Studios When Joslin and his longtime lover Mark Massi were both diagnosed with AIDS he decided to shoot a video diary Silverlake Life The View From Here codirected by Peter Friedman 1993 He died on July 1 1990 in Los Angeles