David Schachter was born on September 15, 1961 in Levittown, New York. David received a BFA in drama from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in 1982. David worked extensively in Television, Off and Off-Off Broadway, and Regional Theater before landing the lead role of naive typesetter David Bennett in the groundbreaking indie drama Buddies (1985), which was the first theatrical film to address the devastating impact of the AIDS pandemic on the gay community in the 1980's. It was written, directed and produced by Aruthur Bressen Jr. the subject of today’s podcast. David began volunteering at GMHC the Gay Men's Health Crisis in 1988 three years after the filming and release of Buddies. He was subsequently hired as a Community Organizer. David went on to earn his Master's Degree in public administration at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in 1994. He began working at his alma mater NYU Wagner in the year 2000 and is now the Associate Dean of Student Affairs. He is a member of the school’s senior leadership team and oversees the student experience including student advisement, student group activities, career services, and alumni relations. Today David joins  us to discuss the life and work of Arthur Bressen,Jr.

Arthur Bressen, Jr. known to his friends as “Artie” was born  on May 27, 1943. He was an American director, writer, producer, documentarian, and gay pornographer, best known for pioneering independent queer cinema in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote and directed the 1985 feature film Buddies, which was the first film to grapple with the subject of the AIDS pandemic. Other directorial endeavors include the largely influential 1977 documentary Gay USA (the first documentary by and about LGBTQ people), and the 1983 feature film Abuse. He died on July 29, 1987, at the age of 44 due to an AIDS-related illness.