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Fri February 11, 2005
11:55 PM GMT+05:30
By Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN (Reuters) - A documentary about the lives of aging porn actors
that throws a harrowing spotlight on the gay film industry in Los Angeles opened the
Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival on Friday to an enthusiastic
reception.
One of many films at this year's Berlinale
examining sex and pornography, "Cycles of Porn - Sex/Life in L.A. Part
2" by German filmmaker Jochen Hick takes its audience on a riveting
journey into the world of low-budget sex films.
It tracks a group of young gay actors hoping
for stardom in their industry who live together in an apartment filled with
omniscient Internet web cameras and contrasts their wide-eyed ambitions with
three men now retired from making porn films.
A follow-up project to his heralded 1997
documentary "Sex/Life in L.A." that had a 15-fold return on its
$30,000 budget, Hick said he was hopeful "Cycles of Porn" would
find even more buyers, including television networks in Europe.
"We found that gay actors do it more for
the adventure or to do something really wild because it's ridiculous how
little they get paid," said Hick. "By contrast, I think there are
very, very few women doing porn films for fun."
The Berlinale, one of the world's leading film
festivals after Cannes and Venice, has made the vastly profitable
pornography industry one of the major themes this year.
A documentary "Inside Deep Throat"
about the 1972 film "Deep Throat" that shocked many and is
estimated to have grossed $600 million after costing $25,000 to make will be
screened in the Panorama section on Sunday.
Hick won the Berlinale's "Teddy" gay
film award in 2003 for his documentary "The World of Rural Queers"
that portrayed the isolated lives of four gay men in rural southwestern Germany.
MOMENTS OF HUMOUR
Hick, who got half of his $80,000 budget for
"Cycles of Porn" from German state film board subsidies, said
segments of explicit gay sex scenes may shock some viewers but that hardly
anyone has walked out of screenings. Viewers cheered on Friday.
Women and heterosexuals have especially
praised it, he said. He has a less explicit version for public television
buyers.
"People say that once they're into the
film they love it," Hick said. "Women have told me they love this
film."
Not without its moments of humour, as when
actors are momentarily unable to perform as required, the film shows actors
collecting their modest $150 per film paychecks. It illuminates a world where
drug abuse is prevalent and men die young.
"The percentage of those doing drugs is
huge," Hick said. "You feel sorry for the poor film actors, but
then you think 'My god, you are old enough to decide what you're
doing'."
While Cole Tucker, a hard-bodied former porn
star in his mid-40s, has found a new career in real estate, Kevin Kramer
toils as a clerk renting videos rather than starring in them.
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