James Wentzy

James Wentzy is known as an AIDS activist and documentary filmmaker associated with ACT UP throughout the 1990s.

James Wentzy was born October 21, 1952, in Brookings, South Dakota, and moved to New York City after graduating the Southern Illinois University film program in 1976. Early on in his New York life Wentzy worked as a film cinematographer for the porn industry, then later as a printer for various photographers. In 1990 he was diagnosed with HIV. That year he joined ACT UP. His participation in ACT UP consists of angry, raw, and thorough coverage mostly consisting of unedited shots with addition of activist interviews who cover the topics discussed in the show.

By 2013, his collection developed into an extensive archive with hundreds of hours of recordings.

Wentzy's work became the subject of a documentary entitled Books of James, which was produced by Ho Tam, a video artist. Drawing upon Wentzy's personal notebooks, this video traces his life story.

Wentzy also worked as the producer of DIVA TV (Damned Interfering Video Activists). DIVA TV was founded in 1989 by a video documentary group along-side ACT UP. Their objective was to videotape public testimony and community activism to motivate the fight against AIDS. Fight Back, Fight AIDS was his first feature-length documentary. Wentzy's goal within DIVA TV was to create a "national media network devoted to reflecting the struggles, needs and state of mind of people affected by AIDS."

Wentzy also served as a video archivist for the Estate Project's AIDS Activist Video Preservation Project for the New York Public Library.

He served as cinematographer on the 2012 documentary film about ACT UP, United in Anger: A History of ACT UP.

^{Biography courtesy of New York Public Library}