ABOUT THE DOCUMENTARY:
RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! is a feature-length documentary about the gay fetish porn studio Palm Drive Video. Created by famed leathermen Jack Fritscher and Mark Hemry during the 1980s home video revolution, this homegrown mail-order company expanded the boundaries of sexual experimentation and promoted kink as an integral form of safe sex during the height of the AIDS epidemic.
As AIDS devastated queer communities, a pervasive fear of sexual activity overtook American culture – and drove many LGBTQ folks back into the ‘closet’. Because fetish does not require an exchange of bodily fluids, Palm Drive Video was founded as a safe-sex service that offered viewers new sexual possibilities in an age of plague. Using rugged men hand-picked from small-town bars, rodeos, county fairgrounds, body-building contests, construction sites and back alleys, the studio focused on a diversity of all-male fetish scenarios – from extreme BDSM to mud worship, medical torture, and leather cowboys. With unlimited access to the Fritscher-Hemry archive, intimate observational footage of Jack and Mark today, and interviews with other legendary experts on gay fetish, RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! reconstructs an erotic underground of hot men and wild sex that paved the way for sex-positive activism and a proliferation of LGBTQ community-building around niche sexualities.
OUR CROWDFUNDING:
We will be finishing production by Summer 2018 and are now fundraising for our post-production. All money raised through IndieGoGo will go directly towards critical costs of completing the documentary:
- Editor
- Assistant Editor / Intern
- Transcriptions
- Archival / Digitization
- Composer
- Color Grading
- Sound Mix
We need all the help we can get to make this film happen – so whether or not you can make a donation, please spread the word about our campaign far and wide! THANK YOU!
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook: @rawuncutvideo
**Please allow 2 weeks delivery for all perks**
Anonymous donations are welcomed!
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Production still from interview of Jack Fritscher (left) and Mark Hemry (center) with director Ryan White (right).
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Production still from interview of Donnie Russo (left) with director Ryan White (right).
WHO WE ARE:
Ryan White – Director/Producer
Born in Big Sur, California, Ryan White is a documentary filmmaker whose award-winning films have screened around the world. He spent four years in Hanoi, Vietnam working as Film Advisor for the World Wildlife Fund’s Greater Mekong Program, then relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, where he produced and directed two documentary features, Camp Unity (2010) and Mondo Banana (2013). Other documentary credits include producing The Organic Life (2013) and associate producing Out Run (2016). Ryan also lectures in documentary and film/video production at universities in the Bay Area.
Alex Clausen – Director/Producer
Alex Clausen is an artist that lives and works in Guerneville, California. He uses temporary sculptures and altered photographs to investigate visual and personal relationships that exist within domestic and work spaces. Clausen earned a bachelors’ degree in Art and Physics from University of California, Davis, and a graduate degree from the California College of the Arts. He was awarded a Graduate Fellowship at the Headlands Center for the Arts for the 2006-2007 year. Clausen has exhibited work at Rena Bransten Gallery, the San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, Kala Art Institute, the Exploratorium and is part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco collection. He is currently an active collaborator and board member of Earthbound Moon, an arts non-profit creating an international sculpture garden whose focus is community engagement and the conversion of private land to public art space.
Todd Verow – Producer
Todd Verow attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. He made short experimental films and worked as a cinematographer before making his feature film debut with Frisk in 1996 (Sundance, Berlin & Toronto). Starting his own production company Bangor Films, Todd has directed over twenty-five features and numerous shorts, establishing himself as the most prolific auteur emeritus of the New Queer Cinema.
Charles Lum – Producer
Charles Lum, aka clublum, received his MFA in Photography from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, after 25 years scouting and managing locations for TV commercials and classic feature films like Wall Street, Fatal Attraction and Sid & Nancy. His short videos have screened internationally in museum, art and film venues.
Paul Lee – Producer
Based in Toronto, Paul Lee has produced, co-produced, and associate-produced over 50 films - more than half of which have been award-winning LGBTQ films. LGBTQ productions include San Francisco filmmaker Jenni Olson’s Berlin-premiered Blue Diary and Sundance-premiered The Joy of Life, and the Berlin-premiered Below the Belt by Toronto filmmakers Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert. Since 1991, Paul has organized, programmed, and curated film festivals in 25 countries around the world. His own films, Thick Lips Thin Lips (1994), These Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking (1995), and The Offering (1999) have screened at hundreds of film festivals and won numerous international awards.
