One of the earliest posing-pouch films to feature sound.
AMG auteur Richard Fontaine started making short, silent posing-pouch snapshot films in the mid-1950s and moved on to sound titles like In the Days of Greek Gods (1958) and Muscles from Outer Space (1962), which featured narratives as well as nudity. Fontaine's films are among the first gay-campaigning documents in American cinema--he often managed to include references to the lowly status of the homosexual. His first feature-length erotic film, In Love Again (1969), is more like propaganda than porn. (from: http://www.glbtq.com/arts/film,3.html)
The homoerotic poetry of Mutsuo Takahashi sets the stage for these associated images based on male desire.
Prometheus, on an Odyssean journey, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in search of the characters of his imagination. After meeting the Muse, he proceeds to the "forest." There, under an apple tree, he communes with his selves, represented by celebrated personages from the New York "underground scene" who appear as modern correlatives to the figures of Greek mythology. The filmmaker, who narrates the situations with a translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound , finds the personalities of his characters to have a timeless universality.
Henry II and his estranged queen battle over the choice of an heir.
“Approximately thirty images comprise Oblivion. Most obsessively repeat themselves. Although the images appear to be solarized, the film was actually contact-printed, combining high contrast black and white negative with a colour positive of the same image. The high contrast accounts for the tendency of shots to flood. Images in the film swell and contrast, often disappearing into pure colour… Oblivion employs extremely rapid cutting. Some of the images last as briefly as two frames. The fact that we see so few frames, that a shot is representationally ambiguous, or shown upside down and sideways, often causes the viewer to project his/her own fantasies… When Jean Genet was asked to what end he was directing his life he responded, “To oblivion.” (J.J. Murphy, “Reaching for Oblivion”) (mikehoolboom.com)
Composer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.
Sweethearts Brad and Janet, stuck with a flat tire during a storm, discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite scientist. As their innocence is lost, Brad and Janet meet a houseful of wild characters, including a rocking biker and a creepy butler. Through elaborate dances and rock songs, Frank-N-Furter unveils his latest creation: a muscular man named 'Rocky'. Harriet then spawns in and says hello and the credits roll!
Rome, AD 303. Emperor Diocletian demotes his favourite, Sebastian, from captain of the palace guard to the rank of common soldier and banishes him to a remote coastal outpost where his fellow soldiers, weakened by their desires, turn to homosexual activities to satisfy their needs. Sebastian becomes the target of lust for the officer Severus, but repeatedly rejects the man's advances. Castigated for his Christian faith, he is tortured, humiliated and ultimately killed.
Filmmaker and teacher, Stéphane Marti has been researching experimental cinema as an art form liberated of aesthetic codes and the economics of big budget cinema. His work is primarily focused on the themes of the sacred and the human body. An avid supporter of the Super-8 format, he has been fighting for its merits as a tool. He has used this format film after film and has been sharing his experiences with new filmmakers during his workshops at the Sorbonne’s College of the Arts (Paris I).
The Angelic Conversation is a lyrical, haunting film about a young man’s search for love in a dreamlike landscape. Its tone is set by the juxtaposition of slow moving homo-erotic images and opaque landscapes through which two men take a journey into their own desires. Offscreen, Dame Judi Dench recites a sequence of Shakespeare's sonnets that counterpoint the action. Jarman called it, “My most austere work, but also the closest to my heart.”
Seymour Krelborn is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard, and is berated by Mr. Mushnik daily. One day Seymour finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper.
Richard Fontaine and Bob Miser started the current exploration of the male nude in film and photography. The two shared ideas props and models and reinvented some of the sexual icons that we all still recognise today. The gladiator the sailor, the cowboy… Starting with posing-straps and graduating to nudes their "art studies" enlisted the talents of up-and-coming actors and bodybuilders. This film recalls that era.
Lorenzo, a handsome first-year professor in an isolated Italian village, falls under the spell of his most beguiling pupil, a dark-haired, starry-eyed 12-year-old named Duilio. As Lorenzo's relationship with his heartless girlfriend deteriorates, he finds himself walking the fields with his loving student. When their idyllic friendship is questioned by Duilio's suspicious stepmother, Lorenzo is brought to a crisis of conscience.
An actor prepares, removing his shirt to iron it. All shirts stay off. In a mix of black and white, colour, and old film clips, a homoerotic odyssey begins. Troy is sacked, and Odysseus starts his languorous journey back to Penelope and Telemachos, who wait in Ithaca. Odysseus dreams: young well-muscled men roll on sheets, hands remove flowers to disclose a sculpted torso. The ship tosses Odysseus; gobs sleep in hammocks; a storm beats down and a life boat seeks a strand. Circe, disguised as Penelope, seduces Odysseus; he stays with her for seven years. In Ithaca, Penelope and her suitors are impatient. Will Odysseus arrive before the film crew breaks for lunch?
Tom of Finland is one of the gay world's few authentic icons. His drawings have had an enormous influence on gay identity. Tom's ultimate leather men are known and seen everywhere. They are symbols of gay pride and friendship. The documentary includes some titillating 'enactments' inspired by Tom's art work.
Savage Hearts keeps you on a wonderful, sensual trip to deepest, darkest South Africa. Eight Cape Town studs star in this erotic adventure from the producers of Sirocco and Trance.
1952: Bishop Bilodeau visits a prison to hear the confession of Simon, a boyhood friend jailed for murder 40 years ago. However, once there, Bilodeau finds himself forced to watch a play put on by Simon and the other inmates depicting the two men's youths. As the play progresses, the tragic truth of Simon's crime comes to light.
Decades after a meteorite destroys much of life on Earth, young survivor Ryan Murphy travels to a military base as a new recruit. However, Murphy is really an agent investigating strange occurrences at the base, which is ruled by the unforgiving Sgt. Bradley. As Murphy trains with his fellow recruits and secretly looks into the disappearance of a friend, he uncovers a shocking secret that may change the fate of humankind.
As the millenium draws near, an evil being awakens. Fused to an ancient Talisman for centuries -- Theriel, the Black Angel is summoned from his resting place to usher in the end of the world. The ghastly messenger must claim seven human sacrifices to complete the ritual and open the gates of Hell. A teenage boy and girl have been chosen to assist the angel in its deadly mission, yet they alone are the world's only hope for salvation.