I kept putting off watching this film since--being 73 years old--I'd heard it all on this subject. But it turned out to be my favorite film of 2020. Opening with a scene of a child filming her family preparing food in the kitchen, the kid annoys everyone. "Aren't you too close?" "Put that thing down, please." But we soon find out that child is the now the grown director digging through her family's home movie archives and telling the family's rather significant story. Indeed, she keeps that camera just as close as an adult and uncovers both the character and temperament of her parents and siblings, but also reveals the secret life of her parents who happened to be the major distributors of gay pornography in the United States for a period of time when the consequences of being caught were not insignificant.
And it was all an accidental vocation of two extraordinary people who intended to have very different careers. That everyone lived through this so well-adjusted speaks to the strength of character of the two parents, even if they hid their vocation from the rest of the world...that is, if you weren't gay and patrons of their wares.
It's also a story of the economy of the adult book and film industry which reached its pinnacle in the 1980's & 90's despite governmental forces who wanted to destroy it. Trying to live a "straight life" amid all this drama and at the same time trying to appear "respectable" to their conservative Synagogue, their children and the PTA, is nothing short of a miracle.
The film is focused on the end of this era as well as all that came before it. The deck that is stacked against them by the Reagan Administration and ensuing decisions by the Supreme Court which thwarted that effort are outlined, but the real story is the survival of a family unit under the most unusual of circumstances. We'd be told "organized crime" was the power behind the adult film industry, but it turns out a Mom-and-Pop store on sunny Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood was a significant contributor as well.
The personalities of all the family are presented in a matter-of-fact way: A Mother "who wears the pants" in the family keeps chiding her daughter not to film her, wondering if this was going to be some Christina Crawford expose, the Father who is a warm "good time 'Barry'" and softens the mother's hard edges. The store's employees and customers get their say and show deep appreciation that the bookstore held in honoring their life style without threat; and the three children who are distinct well-adjusted individuals who bring along a few surprises during the course of the film.
It's probably the best documentary about the family unit that I've seen. And if it's not necessarily the model all parents should emulate, the forgiveness and tolerance they extend to one another is as righteous as it gets.
And it was all an accidental vocation of two extraordinary people who intended to have very different careers. That everyone lived through this so well-adjusted speaks to the strength of character of the two parents, even if they hid their vocation from the rest of the world...that is, if you weren't gay and patrons of their wares.
It's also a story of the economy of the adult book and film industry which reached its pinnacle in the 1980's & 90's despite governmental forces who wanted to destroy it. Trying to live a "straight life" amid all this drama and at the same time trying to appear "respectable" to their conservative Synagogue, their children and the PTA, is nothing short of a miracle.
The film is focused on the end of this era as well as all that came before it. The deck that is stacked against them by the Reagan Administration and ensuing decisions by the Supreme Court which thwarted that effort are outlined, but the real story is the survival of a family unit under the most unusual of circumstances. We'd be told "organized crime" was the power behind the adult film industry, but it turns out a Mom-and-Pop store on sunny Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood was a significant contributor as well.
The personalities of all the family are presented in a matter-of-fact way: A Mother "who wears the pants" in the family keeps chiding her daughter not to film her, wondering if this was going to be some Christina Crawford expose, the Father who is a warm "good time 'Barry'" and softens the mother's hard edges. The store's employees and customers get their say and show deep appreciation that the bookstore held in honoring their life style without threat; and the three children who are distinct well-adjusted individuals who bring along a few surprises during the course of the film.
It's probably the best documentary about the family unit that I've seen. And if it's not necessarily the model all parents should emulate, the forgiveness and tolerance they extend to one another is as righteous as it gets.