Kevin Duffy

John Fleck Is Who You Want Him to Be

Kevin Duffy

John Fleck

In 1990, near the height of the AIDS crisis in the U.S., John Fleck was attacked by the U.S. government as one of the “NEA Four,” when funding to three queer artists and a prominent straight feminist was reversed by the National Endowment for the Arts. His work was introduced on national television as “homosexual skits.” A sit-down interview with Fleck cuts between archival video of performances spanning four decades and present-day vérité footage as he rehearses and performs in New York and California for an NEA Four 20th-reunion performance.