In 1976, Karen and Barry Mason had fallen on hard times and were looking for a way to support their young family when they answered an ad in the Los Angeles Times. Larry Flynt was seeking distributors for Hustler Magazine. What was expected to be a brief sideline led to their becoming fully immersed in the LGBT community as they took over a local store, Circus of Books. A decade later, they had become the biggest distributors of gay porn in the US. The film focuses on the double life they led, trying to maintain the balance of being parents at a time when LGBT culture was not yet accepted. Their many challenges included facing jail time for a federal obscenity prosecution and enabling their store to be a place of refuge at the height of the AIDS crisis. Circus of Books offers a rare glimpse into an untold chapter of queer history, and it is told through the lense of the owners’ own daughter, Rachel Mason, an artist, filmmaker and musician.
You May Also Like
A documentary about the development and spread of the virtual currency called Bitcoin.
From the Montana Rockies to the wheat fields of Kansas and the Gulf of Mexico, families who work the land and sea are crossing political divides to find unexpected ways to protect the natural resources vital to their livelihoods. These are the new heroes of conservation, deep in America’s heartland.
In this high school reunion movie turned inside out, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo relives her tortured adolescence, wondering if she remembered it all wrong.
BEAUTIFUL NOISE is an in-depth exploration of a music movement in the late twentieth century, a fascinating period when some innovative musicians mixed guitar noise into conventional pop song structures while maintaining a philosophy of letting the music speak for itself. Although many of the people interviewed are notoriously press shy they have opened up about their music and experiences from over 20 years ago, how they defied the rules and became sonic innovators that have inspired so many.
This feature documentary deeply explores Dr. King, his experience, his legacy and the Movement at large through key events – The Montgomery Bus Boycott, The Birmingham Campaign, March on Washington, the Selma Movement and Assassination and Legacy.
Comedy special featuring socio-political comedian W. Kamau Bell, who brings his characteristically biting and hilarious take on the real issues of contemporary America from gentrification to raising his family in a post-Obama nation.
A depiction of the last living generation of German participants in Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich.
Controversy erupts when an unassuming young man floods the American wine market with fake vintages valued in the millions, bamboozling the wine world elite, in this humorous and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con on the eve of the 2008 stock market crash.
The Ultra Fans of the three foremost football clubs in Istanbul, Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas, have been known all over Europe for their unconditional support of their teams, and their mutual rivalry that often resulted in extremely violent clashes. The current protest movement in Turkey -originated to protect Gezi-park against demolition- is a movement against the ruling AK party. The ruthless dealings of the police against peaceful protesters sparked a nation-wide movement. Then something remarkable happened: fans of the competing football teams united for a common cause for the first time ever. The football ultras now fight side by side against the police and use their experience with clashes to help the protesters against tear gas and to build barricades. The name for their alliance: Istanbul United.
Legendary and controversial attorney Roy Cohn was a power broker in the rough and tumble world of New York City business and politics. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s top counsel during investigations into Communist activities in the 1950s, Cohn is also known for being Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, fixer and mentor. Focusing on key periods of his life, and drawing on extensive, newly unearthed archival material, a new documentary on Cohn’s life will debut on HBO in 2019.
Everyone thinks that Bob Kane created Batman, but that’s not the whole truth. One author makes it his crusade to make it known that Bill Finger, a struggling writer, actually helped invent the iconic superhero, from concept to costume to the very character we all know and love. Bruce Wayne may be Batman’s secret identity, but his creator was always a true mystery.
An American doctor establishes an orphanage in Ecuador to help the starving and homeless children of the Amazon rain-forest.
