Reminisces of a rent boy
Ricky is a young man who takes care of his sick mother. His father hovers at the edge of the picture, so Ricky provides for himself and his mom through prostitution, running errands, and acting as a caregiver for a blind man. Through the course of the film, Ricky befriends Janey, a young woman he finds beaten by her ex-boyfriend, and Trenn, a mysterious young man in trouble with the law. The three of them navigate a dark and confusing world. It uses many of the actors who have come to constitute the Dar A Luz company, including Tony Torn, Tom Fitzpatrick, Juliana Francis, and Tom Pearl. It will disappoint those who approach it looking for a film analogue of the “faster and louder” aesthetic that critics have used to characterize much of Abdoh’s stage work. The Blind Owl does use a variety of techniques reminiscent of his stage direction, giving it an unusual theatricality.
In the final moments of his accomplished life Alan Driscol reaches out for the one experience he would never have allowed himself to have...until now.
Adrian is a young fame seeker who rents himself out at social events. He cries at funerals, tells jokes at parties and applauds on opening nights. Suddenly, his luck changes and Adrian becomes an overnight smash...
Jasper, a 20 something playboy with little empathy, has a date in a rather obscure motel Petit Ami with Vincent, a mysterious older man. For Jasper just another day on the job, until he discovers Vincent's secret.
When a banker invites a sex worker to his London apartment, he finds himself coming face to face with both his own past, and one of the world's largest humanitarian crises.
Struggle is the story of Darren, a young gay man, who arrives in Toronto seeking a new life. Running out of money, and with nowhere to live, he quickly falls in with a group of gay rent boys. Complicating matters for himself, he falls in love with Steve, one of the group. Steve already has a boyfriend. While desperately trying to avoid becoming a prostitute himself, Darren's loneliness and infatuation with Steve eventually sets him on a downward spiral with tragic circumstances.
Just as doctors, lawyers and others strive to reach the top of their professions, Greek Pete longs to reach the pinnacle of his. The only difference is that he's a rent boy, and the recognition he seeks is a nod from the World Escort Awards.
Sex is currency. It commands power and can instill fear. Tom, a young man with a troubled past finds himself sucked into a seedy underworld by George Norris, a now super villain with a sadistic streak. A helpless pawn in one of Norris's narcotic scams with a bent cop, Dunston, Tom is dragged deeper into a vicious circle of blood money, vice and ruthless violence from which their seems no way out. Until fate gives Tom a glimmer of hope. When Norris is killed in his apartment, Tom seizes his chance to escape. Terrified and covered in Norris's blood, Tom heads downstairs to his neighbors, Max and Nikki his new friends in the city. With going to the police out of the question, Max and Nikki speed Tom to their desolate cottage deep in the Welsh countryside. With the luxury of space, Tom begins to realize a long-forgotten dream; a return to happier times before his innocence was shattered. Suppressed emotion flood back provoked by Tom's attraction to Nikki...
Antoine, a handsome boy in his 20s, falls for a straight best friend who does not reciprocate, and being a junkie exits the film quite early. Enter a girl, who seems to make him happy again, after he has tried living as a rent boy with men, having some familial, financial difficulties. But the girl is a junkie too.
A poet sells his collection of comic books and action figures in order to afford to hire a male stripper on New Years Eve.
Jean-Christophe lives with his mother, an English prostitute, in Paris. He dreams of becoming a model. Over the course of a day, he endures a series of abusive encounters that will change him forever. He goes from innocence to experience as he, and his dreams, are destroyed by those around him. The violence of the film is accentuated by the use of BDSM, Performance Art and Dance.
It is a sweltering day in Buenos Aires, Miserere square and the railway station are packed. Almost unnoticed, a group of guys prostitute themselves for little money. Their thoughts emerge, deadening the oppressive hustle and bustle of the square and the station. Miserere reveals an invisible problem: the prostitution of needy men in the big Latin American cities.
In this verité-style drama, Anthony, a newcomer to San Francisco, attempts to come to terms with his abusive ex-lover when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with a street hustler.
Brothers Joel, Dennis and Sonny work together as dancers at a low-rent gay bar in downtown Manila, in the Philippines. Despite his mother's pleas, Sonny decides to quit college to work full-time at the bar, while Dennis has moved beyond dancing into prostitution at the urging of the manipulative club manager. Joel, the eldest, tries to balance his secret gay life with his socially respectable role as a husband and father.
Carlos wants to be an actor. But his father, Pepe, wants him to work in the family business, that is, male prostitution. Carlos decides that he will be one of his father's boys until he can get his foot in the door in Hollywood.
Jim is a young man from Essex who moves to Soho with dreams of fame and fortune. When he joins a group of luxury male escorts, he finds himself embarking on a psychedelic journey of decadence.
It's the day before Christmas, the day before John's 21st birthday. He's a prostitute on Santa Monica Blvd in L.A., and he wants to spend that night and the next day at the posh Park Plaza Hotel. Meanwhile, Donner, a lad new to the streets, wants John to leave the city with him. John spends the day trying to figure out how to deal with Donner's friendship.
Paid 50 dollars for their time, 101 male prostitutes -- spanning all ages, ethnicities, and personal backgrounds -- are questioned by the filmmakers about their lives.
Marek is a 15-year-old from a provincial village who runs away to Prague when he begins to fail at school. He is mugged shortly after arriving in the city and is rescued by Honza with the promise of work. Marek is taken to an apartment, drugged, and becomes a male prostitute. He is a bit smarter than his colleagues and teams up with a friend, David, in order to go after bigger scores – to cash in and get out. They manage to stash away a bit of money, but when it comes time to return home, Marek loses his nerve and is soon back in the city.