A kid born in a Wyoming incarceration camp in 1943 grew up to be one of the busiest organizers Philadelphia ever had, and plenty of Philadelphians still have not heard his name. The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary changes that on Thursday, November 5, when KIYOSHI has its world debut as the opening night of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival.
The screening starts at 6:30 p.m. at Graham Auditorium in Moore College of Art & Design, 1916 Race Street. Tickets are sold through the festival’s ticketing page.
The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary Covers a Journey
Kiyoshi Kuromiya came to Philadelphia to study at the University of Pennsylvania and stayed in the city’s causes for the rest of his life. The filmmakers describe a man who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., protested the Vietnam War, took part in gay rights protests before Stonewall and helped start ACT UP Philadelphia. He died in 2000.
One part of his record is easy to check. Kuromiya was a plaintiff, through his Critical Path AIDS Project, in the ACLU’s challenge to the Communications Decency Act, and in 1997 the Supreme Court struck down key parts of the law. Few people can say a Philadelphia AIDS project helped protect free speech online.
The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary runs 89 minutes and is directed by Glenn Holsten. It mixes archival footage, stylized interviews, studio sets and projections, with voices from friends, scholars, fellow activists, family members and Kuromiya himself. Scenes were shot in Philadelphia and at the Heart Mountain pilgrimage in Wyoming, where his life began.
The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary also goes back to Heart Mountain through the family. In 2024 the crew filmed the annual pilgrimage through the eyes of Kuromiya’s younger brother, Larry, who was seeing the site for the first time. Larry sat for an interview inside an original barrack apartment about 20 by 20 feet, the size of the space the family of seven once shared.
The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary Production Team
Chris Bartlett is a producer and the former executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center. He met Kuromiya in 1991 through ACT UP Philadelphia and calls him one of his greatest mentors. Keith Brand, a professor at Rowan University, made a 2021 audio documentary about Kuromiya before the film project began.
The other producers are Teresa Jaynes, Rob Buscher and Che Gossett, who is finishing a biography of Kuromiya. Holsten’s earlier films include Jamie Wyeth and the Unflinching Eye, Citizen George and Hell or High Seas. Between them, they have spent years on this one life.
The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary Opening Night
Plan on a full evening. The listing runs from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., and the film is followed by a panel discussion and the festival’s Vijay Mohan Social Change Award. A 14-minute short, A Flash and How It Lasts, screens on the same program in its first Philadelphia showing. It follows a gay Chinese writer in Los Angeles and his father, who is visiting from China.
This is the festival’s 19th year, with 73 films from 23 countries and territories and five world debuts. The festival teamed up with the Barnes last year for a First Friday evening of jazz and film, and Moore’s campus also hosted FashCon Philly 2026, so Race Street is getting used to a crowd.
Coming Home With the Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary
Most world debuts belong to a festival. The Kiyoshi Kuromiya Documentary belongs to a city. Kuromiya’s story started in a camp in Wyoming, but a great deal of it happened here, and the people who knew him, marched with him or inherited his work will be in that room.
Images: Peter Lien, David Sawnson, George Reynolds
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