Good Hot Stuff, 90 min

A narrated history/documentary of Hand In Hand Films, the pioneering gay movie company that first appeared in Unlike Erotikus (V0586), which is a more general history of the gay movie, this film traces the evolution of Hand In Hand and how its three founders, Jack Deveau, Robert Alvarez and Jaap Penraat, created a loose cooperative of filmmakers dedicated to the production of high quality, innovative gay erotica. The film offers behind-the-scenes explanations of how adult films are made; exclusive interviews; segments from several Hand In Hand titles; and previously unreleased material, including bloopers and outtakes. The featured films include: Left-Handed, Hand In Hand's first release, and also the first gay film ever with a full script and musical score; Peter de Rome's Hot Pants, an impressionistic short featuring a go-go boy jacking off; Ballet Down the Highway, about a trucker who falls for a ballet star; Adam & Yves, a languid love story set in Paris; Wanted: Billy the Kid, about a rambling hustler; The Night Before; Drive, a zany spy tale; Bagdad; and several others. Following the release Left-Handed, Hand In Hand filmmakers began incorporating more story into their movies in order to draw in the audience. Similarly, the camerawork evolved: the lens no long merely recorded the sex, but served to convey the greater story as well. The shooting of the now-famous 21-hour live shoot on a New York subway for "Underground," a scene from The Erotic Films of Peter de Rome collection, is chronicled here. The shoot and the action it produces are outrageous. The narrator relates in detail the thrills of the whole experience, the real-life risk of being caught or arrested, the challenge of staying erect on a moving train, the technical difficulties the shoot. Also discussed is director and photographer Arch Brown's The Night Before, which experimented with black-and-white photography and dance. The only lengthy sexual segment - the orgy scene from Beyond These Doors, a sort of Persian bacchanal - is saved for the end. Good Hot Stuff is required viewing for anyone interested in the history of gay erotica. "Interesting anecdotes... skillfully interspersed with steamy sex sequences." Contax