August 30th, 2016 - I'm a Porn Star: Gay4Pay will launch worldwide on August 30th, 2016 on Vimeo, Amazon, Google Play, Dish and Shaw video on demand services.
Curiously there are a disproportionate percentage of men working in gay porn who identify as straight. Why would a straight man do gay porn?
I'm a filmmaker. My job is to provoke you to think and hopefully start a conversation after watching my work. In my opinion, it's not my responsibility to tell you what your opinion should be.
Instead of emulating Sally Field ("You like me. You really like me!") I'd rather the subjects of my films make you uncomfortable. Love them, hate them - doesn't matter to me. Just consider them.
As wise old Rumi said, "Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there."
I was asked by a TV network to make a documentary about straight men working in gay porn. There are reams of digital 0 and 1s filling cyber space with people arguing, guessing, colluding, and fantasizing about what the real sexuality of these men are. There is bound to be a multitude of comments riding this thought train below my post.
That doesn't actually interest me and I'll be blunt here and suggest it shouldn't intrigue you either. That conversation is about putting a label on a person. It's our responsibility as a society to stop reducing each other to labels and they are many - fat, slut, white, black, poor, privileged, straight, queer - you get the point.
I hope I can poke your curiosity beyond firing up your labeling machine and to an arena that considers broader questions like...
What does it say about us, the viewer that so much of gay porn is dominated by images of straight men? Are there shades of internalized homophobia emerging?
Why are so many young people considering porn as part of their career or financial paths?
What are the ramifications of straight producers, directors and performers making gay porn?
Does this entertainment accurately reflect our bedrooms? Does it need to?
Is it a mockery to have straight men doing gay porn? Or is it an example of how far acceptance and visibility for LGBTQ people have come?
Is this the entertainment the gay porn audience wants or is it simply what's being offered?
To answer these questions the documentary interviews men from some of the most popular and prolific studios that feature straight men. Gay performers also add their perspective about working with straight guys.
Please watch the documentary, consider these questions and then comment. Let's start a conversation. Let the 0 and 1s fly!
I'm a Porn Star: Gay4Pay is produced and distributed by Border2Border Entertainment and will launch worldwide on August 30th, 2016 on Vimeo, Amazon, Google Play, Dish and Shaw video on demand services.