Let’s Talk About Sex

Documentaries give us a voyeuristic glimpse into other people’s lives.

Sex documentaries, believe it or not, can be painfully dry and (yawn) rather boring. I know, because as a sex historian/AIDS activist/porn expert/ for nearly two decades I’ve appeared in my share of sex docs and have talked plenty about sex.

Let’s talk about the really good ones; some that have been out for a while and some newly out especially for GLBT folk. And, if you’re just into talking about it, there’s Steve Balderson’s Phone Sex, a voyeuristic experimental film where he asks everyone from comedienne Margaret Cho and magician Penn Jillette to porn star Ron Jeremy and porn directrix Chi Chi LaRue only three simple words, “What is sexy?” The answers are sizzling!

But first, for the B-L-T group there’s an unusually erotic 90-minute PBS bio of bisexual sexologist Alfred Kinsey called Kinsey, not to be confused with Bill Condon’s biopic of the same name. It talks to some of the actual team of libidinous sex researchers, and sifts out some of the fact and fiction of their groundbreaking research.

My gal friends have been talking about the provocative Lesbian Sex and Sexuality which explores what girl-girl turn-ons are and interviews academics, exotic dancers and lesbian pornographers.

And, just out is the undercover look at the Las Vegas first-ever World’s Most Beautiful Transssexual Pageant in Trantasia. Directed by Jeremy Stanford, this is funny, moving, very personal and very, very bitchy.

For the guys is some muscle men put in a historic perspective in Beefcake as well as an inside look at street hustlers in 101 Rent Boys Uncut. Directed by that fabulous team of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, “Rent Boys” delves into the guys who work Santa Monica Boulevard and tells their struggles with money, dreams and health. Some of the studs talk about being gay for pay, some offer tips and hints, and some even talk about finding love.

Working in the porn world is where I came in as one of the “talking heads” in Ronnie Larsen’s Shooting Porn. His website even has a shot of me pulling out my dildo collection to explain how the appendages are replicas of the most personal parts of my friends. I was also in a cameo of the mockumentary about the porn world called Full Frontal by Kyle Schickner, who has gone on to direct some amazing films.

Last year, I was asked to be in More Dangerous: The Making of Michael Lucas’ Dngerous Liaisons in which I ranted (lovingly) about how egomaniacal the award-winning director and star Michael Lucas was, and of course it was all kept in the documentary along with comments by Boy George, RuPaul, Bruce Vilanch, Michael Musto and many others.

Among the sexiest docs about dicks are the O is for Orgy and Orgy Boys series by Karen Dior. Allan Gassman’s more thoughtful but less sexy version of O Boys: Parties, Porn, and Politics has a lot more of me, only because they never let me take my clothes off (as well as playwright Robert Patrick and singer Michael Callen). We’re in it to give it gravitas, the eye candy is more than 100 other naked guys.

Speaking of nudity, there’s Sex/Life in L.A. and its sequel which profiles porn legends such as Cole Tucker, Kevin Kramer, and Matt Bradshaw. Directed by Jochen Hick, this offers quite a close take of male erotica and reveals some of the warts behind the handsome hunks of glamour magazines and porn. It includes intimate interviews with performance artist Ron Athey, model Tony Ward and a few hustlers along the way.

Hick also directed “Menmaniacs” also just out on DVD which punches into the heart of the S&M community in San Francisco, Chicago and New York. This hard-knocking doc follows International Male Leather and Mr. Drummer winners as well as a few uniform fetishists and long-term slaves.

For more nudity of both guys and gals, take a peek at Thinking XXX which details the photo shoot of a book of porn legends such as bisexuals Lukas Ridgeston, Peter North, Jenna Jameson and Nina Hartley as well as gay stars like Michael Lucas, Aiden Shaw and Chad Hunt. The HBO DVD has interviews with all 30 stars shown fully clothed and fully nude who are profiled by writers such as Gore Vidal and John Waters.

Now if these titles won’t get you seriously talking about sex, nothing will.