A friend recommended this movie to me -- it's on one of her students' reading lists, I think -- during a discussion of my CLGA project. It's not exactly right for this project (on account of the penises), but it's a very sweet little story. And the kissing is still kinda hot. Not safe for work (also on account of the penises). 

http://www.4shared.com/video/jgEDLzsq/Travis_Matthews--I_Want_Your_L.html 

You have to register to view it. I was able to download it after registering, but it's not exactly practical to try to share porn in a huge, pirated file. (Hence the popularity of "tube" websites.)

I think her recommendation has to do with the construction and consolidation of queer identities, since the filmmaker's work mostly focuses on "hipsters" in and around San Francisco, but has expanded to make films about queers in other "world class" cities. The film linked above has been turned into a full-length feature, and Margot is pretty sure the project was bankrolled by a Big Porn company. (I'm looking into it, but my interest stems from a different project.)

Anyway, I am realizing that, while I did think to investigate the neighbourhood around the CLGA for this project, I haven't given any thought at all to the city where the archive content was produced: in this case, to San Francisco, where OOB was produced. I don't know a whole lot about it, aside from a vague idea that it's like the model queer neighbourhood, with outrageously high rents and everything. Was there resistance to gentrification? Probably. I wonder if any of it appears in OOB. 

I think sex work activists had a ballot proposal to stop arrests of outdoor prostitutes in SF, too, but that was just a couple of years ago. "Proposition K," if I remember correctly. It was unsuccessful, but still had enough of the vote to be significant. That was long after the end of OOB's production, though. Just one of rather few entries on the list of things I know about San Francisco. 

Incidentally, what the director describes in this interview sounds an awful lot like what feminist porn producers say feminist porn is. But of course there are no women (visibly) involved in the production. I wonder if this might trouble my definition of "feminist porn" (and, by extension, my definition of "feminist") a little bit. Several months ago, I asked Mark what he thought about men calling themselves feminists and "doing" feminist theory by writing and blogging about it. I was asking because of a rather big blowup among feminist bloggers over finding out that a popular male feminist blogger had, before his conversion to Christianity and feminism, been a violent abuser. (After his conversion, he was just self-righteous and self-promoting, which I suppose is an improvement.) I remember we came to different conclusions, but now I can't find the thread and can't remember what the conclusions were. 

Anyway, interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFo63Xhas1k