Seed Money

A classic tale of an American entrepreneur who saw a consumer (and societal) need and made his fortune filling it, the documentary Seed Money profiles the king of gay porn, Chuck Holmes. Indiana-born, wholesome-looking Holmes reinvented gay porn at the beginning of the 1970s, soon after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all Americans have the right to read or watch whatever they want in the privacy of their homes. Prior to Holmes's creation of Falcon Studios, gay porn (as we see via murky examples) was a shadowy affair that could induce headaches from the shaky camerawork. Falcon Studios made its own brand of cheesy exploitation movies with silly story premises that simply offered an excuse for hunky male actors to get undressed as quickly as possible (there are numerous film clips here from Holmes's work, all of which are softcore). While Holmes didn't direct films, he knew who should star, and he found ways to get gay films to customers while skirting laws related to peddling obscene materials. All of this history should be of interest to anyone curious about fringe filmmaking in the 20th century. But Seed Money is also about Holmes's role in the evolution of gay culture in the 1970s and beyond, as well as how pornography was part of a sexual liberation movement that helped form gay identity. The later chapters follow Holmes's long battle with AIDS (he died in 2000), during which he became an active supporter of LGBT causes and rights. That pivot was not controversy-free, as some believed that a porn profiteer had no place in philanthropy. Recommended. (T. Keogh)