David Weissman | Song from an Angel / 1988

song and dance man

by Douglas Messerli

 

David Weissman (director) Song from an Angel / 1988 [4 minutes]

 

This incredibly moving short film is dedicated to and performed by San Francisco musical performer Rodney Price. Price was a founding member of the Angels of Light, a San Francisco theatrical troupe that, as the introductory note explains, “for over a decade dazzled audiences with their musical extravaganzas.” In 1987, Price was diagnosed with AIDS.

     Sitting in a wheelchair and dressed in the indignity of a hospital gown, Price sings music based on Kurt Weill’s “One Life to Live,” with lyrics by Janice Sukaitis. The piece, retitled “Less Time Than You,” is a truly remarkable declaration to his friends to stop speaking of him as being already dead and simply take him out to dinner, give him a deep hug, or even something deeper as a gesture of love. With a ghostly appearance, but a wonderfully playful presence, Price sings and even taps from his wheel chair to a piano accompaniment by Scrumbly Kodewyn and moving lyrics such as those I’ve chosen below:

 

There’s an element of doom and desperation

when I’m the subject of the conversation.

Locals agree, I’ll never see

my washboard stomach or my derriere,

my youthful abundant head of hair.

 

 

….

 

I start the day every morning

inspiring angels like you.

You say I’m thinner,

take me to dinner

because I’ve got less time than you.

….

Don’t feel that you’ve got to cure me

I just need someone to drive

and keep the car running smoothly,

bring me flowers, they keep me alive!

 

     This may be one of the most remarkable short films about AIDS victims ever made; the zany attitude the dying man conveys speaks to the thousands of brave victims which hung on to their talents, entertaining us until the very last moment of their gifted lives.* 

      Song from an Angel is an absolutely memorable warble of death, something once you see it you can never forget. This angel, Price, who Weissman’s film so beautifully memorializes, is someone any of us would surely have wanted know while he was living, to have, to kiss, and to hold near. This man’s joy of living is so palpable that it hurts just to watch. Song from an Angel is a little masterpiece to the terrible AIDS era.

*Weissman wrote me in response to this essay several comments that must be included in this discussion.

 

“That was one of the most challenging and inspiring experiences of my life really. Rodney came directly to the shoot from the hospital where he'd been semi-comatose for over a week. I was afraid he'd die mid-performance. But never have I experienced such a profound manifestation of ‘The show must go on.’” 

    Price died on August 15, 1988, at the age of 38, just two weeks after he was filmed in this performance which Weissman was not sure he could recreate given his condition. As Price himself expressed it in the San Francisco Chronicle obituary essay about his performance: “It’s amazing the kind of adrenaline you get. I guess, that’s the ‘old trouper’ kind of thing, y’know. You never lose it.” Price made certain that the film was dedicated to “Beaver Bauer, without whose love and support my life could never be complete.”

 

Los Angeles, June 4, 2024

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (June 2024).