Page 51 - AVN November 2017

GAYVN
Jaxson concurs, noting they were quick, intense shoots. “The scale that he’s working
with, the crew that he needs to sort of implement this, you don’t have a lot of time. It’s very
different from the way I shoot—I can shoot something for a year sometimes, just because I
can. So to that degree, it was kind of an eye opener. And the performers were amazing.”
That includes porn legend François Sagat, who had worked with LaBruce in L.A. Zombie.
“When he said, ‘I’ve been talking to François Sagat,’ I was like, ‘Um, yes! Whatever it
takes!’” laughs Jaxson. “I couldn’t believe it. It was like, what did I do right to have all this
happening?! I remember François from when I was a porn consumer. Now he had come back
onto the scene … and it just clicked at the same time. François was like, ‘I can’t believe you
guys want to work with me, you’re CockyBoys!’ He’s one of a kind, just brilliant. I feel like I
would sound crazy with how many compliments I have about him.”
Diablo in Berlin is about what happens when a little devil (King) is set loose in a large
cemetery. “He seduces guys who are there to mourn their dear departed before, including
a professor played by Colby Keller,” LaBruce notes. “When an angel (Sean Ford) arrives, an
epic battle ensues. It was inspired by the Pasolini short film The Earth Seen from the Moon.”
it stands—or we might release it all as a single film at that time. But I
wanted to get one of them out this year.”
LaBruce wrote all of the shorts, and took a lot of photographs during
the shoots (“I’ve always promoted my own films, and consider it part of
the creative process”). He enlisted the help of editor Judy Landkammer
and sound designer Manuela Schininá, who both worked with him on his
film The Misandrists, while Tobi Jall—his DP for Refugee’s Welcome—joined
in Berlin. He’s also working with CockyBoys and Amard Bird Films to
develop the softcore and hardcore versions.
“Shooting with Jake and RJ was very cool. They’re laid back and
professional, and gave me complete creative freedom. And they treat
their actors extremely well,” LaBruce says. “It’s been very organic. Both
CockyBoys and Amard Bird gave me complete artistic freedom, but of
course there are discussions and suggestions that I take into account.”
And the casting? “It was actually so perfect that it almost seemed
as if I wrote the parts specifically for the actors … it was great to work
with François again. He’s so hot and professional, and easy-going. He’s
I WANTED THIS TO HAVE EVERY
a dream to work with. I put him through hell during the L.A. Zombie
shoot in Los Angeles, and he was a total trooper, never complaining, just
OPPORTUNITY TO BE THE BEST
really totally involved in the vision of the film. He’s an artist in his own
BRUCE LABRUCE MOVIE THAT IT
right, creative and smart. Colby is a real gentleman, and gentle man! He’s
cerebral and also very laid back to work with—and also a consummate
COULD BE. I WAS LIKE, ‘LET ME GIVE YOU ACCESS TO ALL THE
professional, always camera-ready. And he’s really a very good actor.”
CockyBoys has already cast Sagat in another upcoming project—and
hopefully he’s not the only one to return. Shares LaBruce: “I’m already
TOOLS IN MY TOOLBOX AND
talking about doing another project with CockyBoys, one that would be
set in Mexico, and that would be a companion piece to my movie Hustler
LET’S SEE WHAT WE COME
White.”
UP WITH.’
As Jaxson would say: What did we do right to have this happening?!
—JAKE JAXSON
Uber Menschen is about a suicidal professor (the same character that Keller plays in
Diablo) who gets an Uber driver (Calvin Banks) to drive him to a famous bridge where
broken-hearted lovers go to commit suicide. The Purple Army Faction is about gay terrorists
(Dato Foland, Arad WinWin and Levi Carter) who abduct a straight man (Sagat) and try
to fuckwash him to join their cause. Fleapit features Scottish porn star A.J. Alexander and
is about a group of people in a grungy B-movie theatre getting inordinately turned on
while watching one of LaBruce’s movies on the big screen. The director described them
collectively as a return to more classical forms of porn storytelling.
“It’s really just a return to narrative and character in porn. It’s also very much about
aesthetics—using high-end cameras and professional DPs, finding spectacular and varied
locations. I’m really influenced by the great gay avant-garde filmmakers, from (Jean) Genet
and (Kenneth) Anger through (Paul) Morrissey and (Andy) Warhol, the Kuchar Brothers,
Fred Halsted, Curt McDowell, Peter Berlin, Peter de Rome and Wakefield Poole. It’s
challenging to live up to those legends!”
LaBruce also notes that he likes to think of these films as part of “Porn in the Age of
Trump.”
“More than ever, we need radical and political sexual expression to challenge the neo-
conservative forces that are emerging in the world. And also, by the way, to challenge the
leftist moralists who are anti-porn, or who try to police desire and sexual representation.
The four films all encompass my usual themes: fetish, romance, political intervention,
sexual militancy, dark humor.”
The first short—Diablo in Madrid—will release in October, but the path for the others was
still being ironed out. Jaxson notes that all have a loose connection, with some characters
going in and out of each.
“Bruce got really excited by them. Like he did with L.A. Zombie and Raspberry Reich, he’s
doing the festival cut, which isn’t fully explicit but is still sexual. He’s working on that now,
ideally to try to get into a few top-line film festivals at the beginning of the year. To that
degree, being able to submit films to film festivals that have not already been released in
total gives him a better opportunity to have a world premiere.
“So we decided to kind of hold back three of them. We’ll release one in the hopes that
they can find a home for it in the beginning of the year. The idea is release the first one, and
then we’ll release the explicit versions at the beginning of the year once we know where Sean Ford plays an angel and Allen King is the devil in “Diablo in Berlin.” Photo courtesy CockyBoys.
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