During the early 1990s, San Francisco was the epicentre of body modification and gender nonconformity, with transgender pioneers like Patrick Califia and Tala Brandeis fighting for visibility, alongside the voice of a bold S/M community.


Michelle Handelman’s provocative and pioneering documentary 

 captures these queer outlaws in their zeitgeist moment, shot on digital video with an unfiltered rawness that mirrors the activism of the era. From pushy bottoms to macho femmes, 

 immerses the viewer in the San Francisco leather dyke scene, shattering assumptions about gender and lesbian sexuality, while broadening the discussion about personal expressions of eroticism and their political implications. In the 1990s, 

 was attacked in congress by the American Family Association for its depictions of radical lesbian sexuality.


Twenty-five years later, the film has become recognized as a treasured historical document of a movement that tore down barriers of sex, gender, and activism.

BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes & Sadomasochism

Hermannplatz subway station, Berlin Neukölln. A FagDyke is looking out for a hook-up. Cruising. Soon they are spotting a cool leather dyke and follow her right away. When their eyes meet it’s clear what has to happen now — but when they find each other in an abandoned and filthy attic everything happens quite differently than expected… but super hot for sure! 

This film explores the boundaries between pure lust, intimacy, and trust in an anonymous sexual encounter with BDSM dynamics: it celebrates the thrill of lesbian cruising in the Berlin leather scene and also the visibility of non-binary and aging bodies. Where are they in queer porn?

FagDyke Cruising

In this dual projection slideshow of collaged imagery,

tells the story of a housefly who transitions into a man in order to cruise gay bars. 

 is appropriated from the short erotica, “The Dildo in my Pocket,” published in Manscape (March 1985). The original story is about a “woman” who “disguises herself” as a man in order to pursue the gay man “she” is in love with. Despite using outdated language and transphobic tropes, the erotica accurately depicts the concerns and fears many trans-masculine people have about passing, takes seriously the gay desires that some trans-masculine people have for men, and portrays the main character as a competent lover, capable of bringing a cis gay man—and, presumably, Manscape’s readers—to orgasm.

Through the use of collaged images of flies onto sections of text from “The Dildo in my Pocket,” the main character is transformed into a housefly who transitions into a man. Through this reworking, the transphobia of trans people as grotesque is reworked into a science-fiction, anti-assimilationist parable. 

 holds onto Mascape’s trans-masculine history, while circumventing heteronormative gender-assignment.

FlyHole 

In this T4T heart-stopper, leather daddy Francisco puts newcummer leather boy toy Coyote to good use in a good old traditional queer leathersex ceremony. Boot worship, spanking, big clits and hitachi orgasms. 

Featuring Coyote and Francisco St. Laurent 

Leather Butches of Brunswick 

A lesbian art film by the Swiss filmmaker Cleo Übelmann, released in 1986. In black and white, 

 (Italian for “right hand”) is a study of erotic objectification which depicts one woman tying up another woman in a lengthy act of consensual bondage.

Mano Destra

This 'docu-porn' intimately captures a couple discussing their sex, sexuality and gender identity while also having hot sex as the camera rolls. They are a perverted and polyamorous couple who identify as TransEntities, a word they have coined. This is one of the first transgender erotic movies to discuss and demonstrate role play as a rich and meaningful part of a couple's sex life. It also shows a polyamorous relationship in action: Papi' and Wil engage in an unscripted scene with a third partner. You will be absolutely touched and turned on by this movie both physically and mentally.


(Unavailable online, only available via DVD) 

Trans Entities: The Nasty Love of Papi’ and Wil

created by co-conspirators Lina Bembe and Max Disgrace, invokes a queer past in to re-imagine a queer future, and was made in direct response to a lesbian film from 90’s London. At a time when physical spaces for dykes to freely express their sexuality in London is scarce, Tribute is a materialisation of this fantasy space in film form, enacted in the same historic cruising ground featured in the film it took inspiration from, in Stoke Newington.

Tribute 

 is a short film about Craigslist personals and the selfish desires of a wayward transsexual.

Categories

BDSM