All Man: The International Male Story

More than scandalous fashion, hot male models and underwear that leaves nothing to the imagination, ”All Man: The International Male Story” is a three decades journey of an era when the The International Male magazine influenced the world of fashion, perceptions of masculinity and gay rights. In its heyday, the magazine brought in over 120 million dollars, and reached a circulation of over 3 million copies of each issue. The International Male target audience was both gay and straight men. Pictures of sensually dressed men were the gateway to a fantasy world that gave the perfect escape from homophobia and the AIDS pandemic. For straight men the magazine gave the opportunity to take fashion risks and enjoy a freer expression of sexuality without threatening their masculinity and sexual identity.
All Man: The International Male Story” is an aesthetic and uniquely cultural nod to the 80’s & includes unseen before photographs.

Additional screening: Rosh Pina Cinematheque 4.11, 14:00

Maybe Someday

The screenwriter-director-actress Michelle Ehlen comes back to TLVFest after screening here two of her other films: “Butch Jaime” and “S&M Sally”. Her previous films were lighthearted fun-filled comedies that enjoyed crushing gender stereotypes. This time Ehlen proves that she is not only a gifted comic filmmaker but a quality drama master as well. “Maybe Someday” brings us the serious side of her cinematic work and this time she deals with relationships, heartbreak and memory, but despite the dramatic levels, the film is still full of humour.
After her partner leaves her, Jay embarks on a road trip across the USA with a backpack full of basics and an old phone. She arrives at the home of a childhood friend in California and gets swept by a torrent of bitter-sweet memories of their childhood. The real crisis comes when she finds out her old partner is seeing someone else. Meanwhile she meets Tommy, an amateur stand-up comedian who is funnier off the stage. With her teenage sweetheart in the next room and her ex that still messages her, Jay must decide if she really means to leave the limbo she’s stuck in.

Circus of Books

For over 35 years, the gay porn shop “Circus of Books” gave the members of the Los Angeles LGBT community a safe space to celebrate themselves without judgment. Not many people knew that the owners of the shop were Karen and Barry Mason – she was an ex-journalist and he was a special effects master for big Hollywood films such as “2001: A space odyssey” and “Star Wars”. A straight, religious, Jewish couple with three children that attended a religious Jewish school and went to Synagogue on the weekends and were never aware of their parents occupation (and neither did friends and close family members). The Masons witnessed the HIV plague first hand and lost a generation of treasured employees. They became social activists, and yet throughout the whole period never identified as such – only as entrepreneurs serving clients the world ignored, until the internet had ruined their business.
Circus of books”, which was produced by Ryan Murphy, is Rachel Mason, the couple’s daughter, first documentary film. For the first time she puts a camera in front of her parents, the least radical people she ever knew. She asks how they became the biggest distributors of gay porn in the the USA and why did Karen react so negatively when her own son came out of the closet.

The screening is courtesy of Netflix.

Wildhood

Link is doing his best to protect his younger brother Travis from their father’s violent rages. But one night he discovers a dark family secret and realizes that he must leave his father, who symbolizes the violent cultural evisceration of European colonization. Yet Link cannot accept who he really is – even hearing his native language triggers feelings of aggression and resentment.
Pasmay, a young vagabond he meets on his journey, is sympathetic to Link and his younger brother’s situation and decides to put his own life on hold in order to help Link to find his way.
Wildhood” is director Bretten Hannam’s second film. This is a road trip film following a young Native-Canadian man on his journey of self-discovery and unveiling a heritage he knew nothing about. It is also a delicate, sensitive and sexy love story of a couple Two-Spirit young adults.