Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End

In a field more noted for its stridency, the late Paul Monette was the most beguiling of gay activists: a writer whose humor, orneriness, and, above all, compassion rang true in nearly every word he wrote, from early novels like Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll to nonfiction books such as Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir and the revelatory, National Book Award-winning Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story. Fittingly, Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End, originally aired on Cinemax in 1997, is no portrait of a plaster saint, but a deeply personal, ultimately heartbreaking depiction of someone who found his voice only after he had found himself — and lost the love of his life. Using old home movies, friends' memories, and extensive interviews with Monette himself (who died of AIDS in 1995), it's an eerily moving tribute to both man and artist. A-