Sex Stars

The evolution of adult cinema through the most influential films in history, a journey that begins in the 1970s and ends nowadays. An in-depth analysis of the success of the most prestigious erotic films, their impact on industry and society, and their influence on cinema and contemporary culture.

In 1972, a seemingly typical shoestring budget pornographic film was made in a Florida hotel: "Deep Throat," starring Linda Lovelace. This film would surpass the wildest expectation of everyone involved to become one of the most successful independent films of all time. It caught the public imagination which met the spirit of the times, even as the self-appointed guardians of public morality struggled to suppress it, and created, for a brief moment, a possible future where sexuality in film had a bold artistic potential. This film covers the story of the making of this controversial film, its stunning success, its hysterical opposition along with its dark side of mob influence and allegations of the on set mistreatment of the film's star.

Legendary journalist Gay Talese unmasks a motel owner who spied on his guests for decades. But his bombshell story soon becomes a scandal of its own.

Directors Jonathan Alter, John Block and Steve McCarthy bring New York columnists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill’s courageous writing to life, celebrating the acclaimed journalists and the city they loved.

A documentary about Elzbieta Czyzewska, one of Poland's greatest actresses, a beauty icon of the 1960s, who died in 2010. She had a great career in Poland, but the filmmakers focus more on her attempts to make a name for herself as an actress in America, after her sudden emigration to the United States with her husband, American journalist David Halberstam. Friends and acquaintances of Elzbieta Czyzewska speak without embellishment about her failed marriage, her battle with alcoholism won after years, and her attempts to return to Poland. This is a story about the fate of the actress at different stages of her career: at the top, at the bottom and in between.

Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.

With a distinctive style all his own, author and journalist Tom Wolfe reshapes how American stories are told.

A rare behind-the-scenes view of the exploding New York “underground” in the late sixities, a turbulent time and place that was to change American culture forever. A German TV crew, led by journalist Gideon Bachmann, explores the epicenter of the sixties revolution in art, music, poetry and film and interviews the main players in the “New American Cinema,” that was born on the streets of New York. Against a backdrop of cultural upheaval in all of the arts and growing political agitation against the Vietnam War, Bachman interviews the most prominent figures in “underground film,” including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, the Kuchar Brothers and Bruce Connor, and visits the most notorious location in the New York art world of the era - Andy Warhol’s Factory - to conduct an interview with the genius of Pop Art himself.

A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas.

Jonas Mekas assembles 160 portraits, appearances, and fleeting sketches of underground and independent filmmakers captured between 1955 and 1996. Fast-paced and archival in spirit, the film celebrates the avant-garde as its own “nation of cinema,” a vital community existing outside the dominance of commercial film.

What once seemed like an esoteric world now seems essential to our culture: the community of rare book dealers and collectors who, in their love of the delicacy and tactility of books, are helping to keep the printed word alive. D.W. Young’s elegant and entertaining documentary, executive produced by Parker Posey, is a lively tour of New York’s book world, past and present, from the Park Avenue Armory’s annual Antiquarian Book Fair, where original editions can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars; to the Strand and Argosy book stores, still standing against all odds; to the beautifully crammed apartments of collectors and buyers. The film features a litany of special guests, including Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Gay Talese, and a community of dedicated book dealers who strongly believe in the wonder of the object and the everlasting importance of what’s inside.

After Porn Ends 2 picks up where its predecessor left off and not only turns back the clock to meet the oldest living stars in adult film's history, but goes in depth with some of Its most current retirees and juxtaposes their experiences in a life after porn. Delving deeper into society's ongoing stigmas of race, misogyny, and the reality of decreasing opportunities for these former VHS box cover stars. For some, their careers in adult entertainment is accepted proudly and without regret. In fact, it seems to have proven to be the pathway to their current happiness and inner peace. For others, however, a career in porn has proven to be a conduit to certain despair as they struggle to find a way to bury their past and emerge with a new career or calling.

Unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom yields a complex view of the transformation of a media landscape fraught with both peril and opportunity.

The American sexual revolution in motion through Reichenbach's sharp eye: peep shows, gay theatre, X-rated film shoots...

A compilation of 32 trailers from the golden age of cinema roughies.

Frank Sinatra, aka "Old Blue Eyes," was perhaps the greatest entertainer of the 20th century. This video features a revealing, honest and intimate portrait of Sinatra, from his storied boyhood in Hoboken, New Jersey, through his phenomenal career as a singing idol to hordes of bobbysoxers and his success as an Academy Award-winning actor. See what made Frank tick, and why, in this revealing film.

Filmmaker Bonnie Sherr Klein and former stripper Lindalee Tracy explore the pornography industry by visiting strip clubs, peep shows, and adult film sets while interviewing performers, sex workers, critics, and feminist writers. Through these encounters, the documentary examines the production, economics, and cultural debates surrounding pornography.

New rules enforced by the Lady Mayoress mean that sex, weight, height and intelligence need no longer be a factor for joining the Police Force. This opens the floodgates for all and sundry to enter the Police Academy, much to the chagrin of the instructors. Not everyone is there through choice, though. Social misfit Mahoney has been forced to sign up as the only alternative to a jail sentence and it doesn't take long before he falls foul of the boorish Lieutenant Harris. But before long, Mahoney realises that he is enjoying being a police cadet and decides he wants to stay... while Harris decides he wants Mahoney out!

When police funding is cut, the Governor announces he must close one of the academies. To make it fair, the two police academies must compete against each other to stay in operation. Mauser persuades two officers in Lassard's academy to better his odds, but things don't quite turn out as expected...

Dolly Levi is a strong-willed matchmaker who travels to Yonkers, New York in order to see the miserly "well-known unmarried half-a-millionaire" Horace Vandergelder. In doing so, she convinces his niece, his niece's intended, and Horace's two clerks to travel to New York City.

Nurse Linda Lovelace works for libidinous sex therapist Dr. Jayson. One of the patients she is treating is Dilbert Lamb, a meek geek who's harboring plans for a top secret government computer. Both the KGB and FBI alike attempt to enlist Lovelace in order to obtain the data on the computer.

In Manhattan, the aspirant writer Jabez Stone is a complete loser: he is not able to sell his novels, he lives in a lousy apartment and he does not have success with women. When one of his friends Julius Jenson sells his novel for US$ 190,000.00 to an editor, Jabez fells envy and promises to sell his soul to the devil for success and accidentally kills a woman with his typing machine. The Devil knocks on his door, fixes the situation and seals a contract with Jabez. His low quality novels have bad reviews but become best-sellers; Jabez enriches; has success with women, but has no time for his friends. Jabez meets with the publisher Daniel Webster who offers him a chance to break the contract with the devil.

Taxi dancer Charity continues to have faith in the human race despite apparently endless disappointments at its hands, and hope that she will finally meet the nice young man to romance her away from her sleazy life. Maybe, just maybe, handsome Oscar will be the one to do it.

Having both lost their jobs, two strangers become unlikely friends after a run in with a would be robber, who is actually a hitman with a grudge against the two.

Three actors in Hollywood live and love together. A director comes from New York to make a movie about actors and Hollywood.

Three girls go on the road and run into trouble with the people who give them rides.

The colleagues, collaborators, and former lovers of a recently deceased theater personality gather together for an impromptu memorial service in this drama featuring the final full-length feature performance of actor Quentin Crisp. Heartfelt pathos blends with over-the-top comedy when the driving force behind a controversial theater group dies. Frank David Niles was the heart and soul of the "In Your Face" theater company, and now his friends and colleagues are determined to give him a proper send off. In addition to marking Crisp's final full-length feature performance, Red Ribbins also marks the return to the big screen for former The Devil in Miss Jones star Georgina Spelvin.

Wakefield Poole's softcore anthology featuring stories of Adam & Eve, Bath Sheba and Samson & Delilah given sexual twists.

Eight drug addicts are waiting for their connection in a New York apartment while a two-man documentary team films the proceedings. Things go out of control as the men grow increasingly nervous and the cameraman keeps recording.

The film consists of continuous panning shots up a series of 367 human legs.

Joseph Bologna stars as Bill Bonanno in this made-for-television adaptation of the controversial bestseller from Gay Talese, chronicling the rise of New York's infamous Bonanno organized crime family. When his father disappears in 1964 and Bill is compelled to take over the "empire," other mafiosi attempt to take what's theirs. Brenda Vaccaro and Richard S. Castellano fill out the impressive cast of this gripping crime tale.

A fifteen-year-old boy wants to buy a gun from an adult racketeer named Priest, in order to become president of the gang to which he belongs, and to return them to active "bopping" (gang fighting) which has declined in Harlem.

Eccentric Professor Leviticus Wirtsus is obsessed with crossbreeding animals of different species. His research leads Wirtsus to discover a LSD-type substance called Fongaluli

The lecturer invites his students to his home and then begins to educate them sexually, conducting various experiments.

A fashion show turns into a perverse S&M exhibition. The most electrifying S&M footage ever filmed, with two of todays top porno stars giving their wildest and weirdest performances ever.

While watching porn loops at a stag party given by his friend Harry, a husband is shocked to see his wife performing hardcore sex in one of them. He hires a private detective to find out what's going on.

Pretty young Evangeline Parker finds herself stuck on the side of the road after her car breaks down. Parker gets a ride from the sinister Marbus, who turns out to be the leader of a cult of depraved carnal freaks who reside in an old rundown house. Will Parker find a way to escape from the house of sin?