Active Duty and Dirty Bird Pictures

A chance encounter with porn filmmaker Dirk Yates sent Dink Flamingo hurtling towards his true passion for porn filmmaking.

     Although it’s only been around for about a decade, Dink Flamingo’s Active Duty website has already produced 179 porn DVDs featuring real military guys. After growing up in North Carolina and beginning his college studies to become a lawyer, a chance encounter with porn filmmaker Dirk Yates sent Dink Flamingo hurtling towards his true passion for porn filmmaking. Almost immediately a hit, Dink’s military-themed porn struck a chord with gay consumers. In 2006, Dink launched Dirty Bird Pictures to produce professional-level porn films that would showcase the Active Duty models, recruiting directors like Jett Blakk, Brent Corrigan, Grant Roy, Mike Donner and Barrett Long. After weathering the media scandal of 2006 when the military brought charges against some of the enlisted men who appeared on Active Duty, Dink is doing better than ever – as are Dirty Bird Pictures and his websites. We recently had the pleasure of chatting with Dink about his work and his life. This also marks the first time Dink has publicly reflected back on the military scandal of 2006.
   
When did you first notice your attraction to military guys?
     I’ve been a military chaser since high school, when I used to hang out in the barracks at Ft. Bragg, NC. I’d get drunk with the GI’s and suck a lot of them off.  I was raised in a military town and always surrounded by men in uniform. I guess that daily exposure has an affect on your sexual desires.

You first made porn to please yourself. Was that a key to your success?
     Most success stories start with a deep passion. If you’re starting something for the sole purpose of making money, you might as well be flipping burgers – because that’s how much passion you’re going to have for your work. And that lack of passion will be the death of it. You gotta love what you’re doing.

Why was Dirty Bird Pictures launched?
     I wanted to give my Active Duty guys the chance to do different things. I thought they had the good looks to compete with anything from Falcon or the other major studios – and I was right.  In just two years Dirty Bird Pictures has become a well-known brand and received lots of accolades.

Considering any new kinds of projects?
     Actually, Jett Blakk and I have been toying with the idea of doing an independent horror film with a gay twist.  It’s an exciting thought.  When I originally conceived of Dirty Bird Pictures, I wanted to eventually go in that direction – and we might be doing it sooner rather than later.

Some time has now passed. How do you feel about the military charges brought against your models in 2006?
     It was an unfortunate, life-changing event for everyone involved and the guys were my biggest concern.  I took down the site and we redesigned it in a matter of days so that it only offered old material of guys that had long gotten out of the service.  I sanitized it and we left it that way for nearly nine months until things calmed down – and it took that long.  I blame the whole thing on the mainstream media and hold them accountable for causing the military to take the action it did against the guys.  It just happened to be Sweeps Week – and suddenly every news station in my hometown was on my front door, banging for comments.  I never answered. Within a week I saw media outlets all over the world reporting on it.  It was just silly. Most people expect me to be mad at the military, but I can’t say that I am.  The only thing I hold against them is the fact that they let the media dictate their actions with regards to the punishment. But in many ways their hands are tied when they’re dealing with something so sensitive and high-profile.  In the end, I felt we’d all been the victims of a media circus. If ever there was a group of true pornographers, it’s the mainstream media.

Why did you decide to stop producing bareback content?
     After the media scandal I moved the business to San Diego. That was when I realized that bareback videos were no longer an option. I was no longer in my safe, small world of rural North Carolina where HIV and AIDS were things we just heard about on the news. I was now in a major metropolitan area and I had to grow up and become more responsible. What really opened my eyes was realizing how many impressionable fans Active Duty had – young, gay men just coming of age who identified with my models. This realization really woke me up.

Are you a spiritual or religious person?
     I was raised with a Southern Baptist upbringing and I had close ties to the church most of my younger life. In fact, I had planned at one point to become a preacher, had some involvement with Christian radio, and always believed strongly in a higher power.

Do you watch any TV?
     I love True Blood. I’m glad that bitch Mary Anne finally got hers. Hung is another favorite, plus Nurse Jackie and Boston Legal re-runs. I also have a tendency to get caught up in Tru TV’s Forensic Files late at night.

How was it being inducted into the GAYVN Hall of Fame in 2009?
     It was an honor that I’ll hold as one of my biggest career achievements. It came at just the right time. When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you can sometimes feel like you’re just old news. I’m still not quite sure I totally deserve such an honor, but thankfully there are people out there that do. I owe it all to a lot of great fans who have supported my work and to all the beautiful young men who have given something of themselves that they can never take back. The real fame belongs to them.

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