Marco Berger has come out with another movie that’s really beautiful and sexy, but it’s definitely not like the ones he usually makes where guys are just full of sexual tension. This one is filmed in black-and-white and looks amazing. The director found a really weird way to show how humans connect and how sexuality works by using a "man as a dog" idea. It’s a pretty strange but interesting movie that makes you think. The story takes place in a world that’s parallel to ours, where two straight couples are on vacation on an island. You see two guys on a boat calling out to someone, and then this naked, lonely, and really good-looking guy shows up. In this dreamy kind of world, the group calls him a "man," but he basically acts like a pet dog. In this setup, the word "men" refers to naked male humans that people own as pets, just like we own dogs. People are scared of stray men just like they're scared of stray dogs. There are also "women" who ...
Told through various interviews of his friends, colleagues and actors, we learn that in 1971, Chuck Holmes moved to San Francisco to sell real estate. That was the time when the sexual revolution was in full swing and the city was known as the 'Smut Capital of the United States.' Soon his real estate business turned into VHS producing films with mailing list of interested customers, who would pay him all cash money to get their hands of the porn films that he would produce, maybe only twice a year. After a few years, the mailing list had become a studio, Falcon which would soon become a became a revolution. In an era of homophobia, legal loopholes, laws and fear of prosecution for producing and distributing obscenity, Chuck took a hobbyists' industry and modernised it. The way he initially presented his actors and gay men slowly changed from hairy to complete all white American clean male after Calvin Klein came up with their brand. Needless to say that the industry made him a multi-millionaire. The money helped Chuck become a political force both in San Francisco and nationally. He was one of the founders of Human Rights Campaign, and a fundraiser for Democratic politicians, only to find that while his money was always welcome, he often wasn't.
The documentary doesn’t show any footage of Chuck Holmes speaking or interacting besides just one instance where he accepts an award. Rest everything is either shown through porn movie clippings that may have sometimes mimicked his life or through pictures. I felt that was missing a bit. I was glad to see that they did address the AIDS epidemic and how the studio failed to address the issue immediately till they finally gave in to the demand of actors and started using condoms. Interestingly, the documentary glorifies Chuck Holmes way too much, and in the process doesn’t even acknowledge the contributions that the actors or technicians would have had in the success of his business. having said all this, a film still deserves a decent mention to know a bit more of the history about the man who started and revolutionalised the gay porn industry.
Story of Chuck Holmes and his movement from a pornographer to philanthropist to political force. (5.5/10)
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