Safer-sex tapes made by artists and activists in the early 1990s sought to re- sexualise gay men by redefining sexual acts and sexual pleasure. An example of this tendency was Sunil Gupta’s film Cock Crazy or Scared Stiff . The video shows two young men flirting with each other in a playful and candid back and forth as they discuss and demonstrate how to use condoms and explore safer- sex practices. Through close-ups of their faces and hands we become part of the action. We sit between them on kitchen worktops and splash around with them in the bath. It was filmed with friends in a flat in Brixton, where Gupta lived in the early 1990s.

Gupta has since explained that the finished film was the outcome of an invitation to film cutaways for a longer video about safer sex, funded by the Health Education Authority. He went on to describe how the original script had been very wooden, so the cast and crew worked together to adapt it according to their own experiences. While it was shot on Super 8, the commissioners took advantage of video’s capacity for being easily reproduced and distributed, and the finished project was transferred to VHS. Its do-it-yourself aesthetic and hybrid form make it part of this selection of AIDS activist videos produced in the United Kingdom. A community of those impacted by AIDS coming together to collaborate on a video is a beautiful example of alternative moving-image works that engage with AIDS —one that exemplifies the intersection of art, education, and activism.