Boys For Sale: Volume One

By: Amos Lassen

Breaking Glass Pictures brings us three documentaries about the male sex trade for the price of one under the "Boys For Sale" title. Included as "Rent Boys" from Rosa von Praunheim, "All Boys" about the porn industry in the Czech Republic and "Men for Sale", a look at mle sex worked in Montreal. While I have reviewed each of these elsewhere, I am including my reviews here.

"Rent Boys"
Working in the Skin Trade-- A Documentary
Amos Lassen
Rosa von Praunheim gives us a look at male prostitution in this new film coming from Breaking Glass Pictures. Zoo Station in Berlin is one of the places where hustlers ply trade and sell their bodies. The train station is somewhat depressing and we get a look at it by boys who once worked there. The director looks at the boys after they are past their prime and we learn about hustlers who are no longer the age that most look for. We hear how it is for them now and how it was when they were the cream of the crop. We learn that the seductive allure of sex workers is a bit of a myth. We see that the majority of male prostitutes were victims of sexual, emotional and physical abuse. They protect their bodies after having survived some very rough times. One of the guys was tortured at home while another had trouble when he lived in a children's home.
The most shocking thing here is learning that not one of the boys has been able to leave the scene behind them and addiction and crime is part of the lives of many. AIDS is also a problem. The reality of the street is not very pretty.
"All Boys"
Prostitution and Porn
Amos Lassen
"All Boys" is a documentary about the gay porn industry in eastern Europe and it is the story of abuse, prostitution and homelessness and in these ways it somewhat mirrors the same industry in America. We see the industry as being cut-throat and how the porn companies become surrogate families for the young men and that there is often a Fagin-like father figure (the producer) at the head. Many of the young men are straight when they begin working at age 18 and they have a tenure of ab out two years before they are thought to be too old. Dan Komar introduced bareback sex to the young men of Prague when he introduced them to gay porn and he shows how they are expendable once they reach the age of twenty. The movie follows Komar's rise and fall and we meet some of his actors especially one known as Ruda and we see the dysfunctional relationship between the two. Komar found Ruda on the streets of Prague and he exploited him and seduced him. They were a couple for three years even though Komar cheated all the time. We see Komar as a manipulative dirty man who used his boy for his own gain and as a sex toy. It should be noted that Komar is not the only one who does this. As a matter of fact, within ten years, Komar went bankrupt because of a saturated market and the bourgeoning Internet.
Gay porn is the fastest growing segment of the entertainment business in eastern Europe and it's the exploitation of the lonely that this film deals with.

The film exposes the production chain of East European boy porn. It is the poor, uneducated, unemployed young men without strong family ties or social networks, who drift into the porn industry and its 'foster care'. For some it offers survival and peers in the porn community, at least for a while, but in many cases the quick, easy money comes at a high cost in the long run. After five films these boys are already too old.
We see East Europe's boys, mostly with heterosexual identities, in casting sessions, before and after shoots, with the team they work with.
Porn and prostitution often go hand in hand. For consumers porn is mainly entertainment, but maybe it often also serves to alleviate the same wounds, the same loneliness, as in the production side of the business. It is the exploitation of the lonely on all sides. The film does point out that most of the boys who are roped into doing gay porn to survive, once they are too old to continue, are so addicted to sex and that they turn to hustling to feed their needs. It's a sad story.
"Men for Sale"

Hustlers in Montreal

Amos Lassen

Jean Rodrique gives us a new powerful documentary with "Men for Sale" (Breaking Glass Pictures). For over a year he met with hustlers in Montreal and listened to what they had to say and in turn he made this film which is an honest account of the social reality of those who get paid for providing sex.
Montreal is home to Action Sero Zero, a community organization that provides free healthcare and HIV prevention services. This is how Rodrique gained access to the young male hustlers. Most of these men come from troubled backgrounds and they are part of Canadian "lost youth". They are trying to survive and this attempt has been chaotic for many. They are harassed and set apart from the society that uses their services and their bodies and they find that the money they make is easy. Many have resorted to the use of so that the pain of their lives is dulled. Some try to be part of society and to relive the childhood they never had by bonding with others but they do not have much success finding love. They are very aware that their futures look very dim and limited. This is not a pretty movie and, at times, it is difficult to watch. Only one of them refuses to show his face in the film but what he has to say more than makes up for what we do not see.
An interesting aspect is that we see the role of the world and we understand that we live in one that is controlled by materialism and consumption. We see how capitalism is predatory and it feeds off of the suffering (both physical and emotional) of those who are outcasts. Therefore the film becomes a somewhat subversive counter-current to attitudes prevalent in today's society.
The truth of what is said here shows the complexity of the lives of the men who appear here. Eleven sex workers are interviewed and the common stereotypes are not here. You are not likely to forget what you see here and how you feel for people who work in this profession may change. This is obviously a labor of love for Rodrique and we are so lucky that he shares it with us.
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