We`d like to think of ourselves as normal people, a world apart from the everyday street hustler. We think about money, sex and love, we worry about our families, our bodies and our jobs. We dream about our futures...
So do they.
Santa Monica Boulevard is one of the most famous strips in the world for hustling. It also has the most compelling stories. When your commodity is your body, life on the streets tends to chalk up more experiences, and more stories than most people have in a lifetime.
World of Wonder`s award-winning documentarians, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, spent 2 years on the strip capturing a hundred and one of those stories. Hot off their second Sundance Film Festival success with THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE, the dynamic duo is proud to announce their latest film, 101 RENT BOYS. The film was an audience favorite at the prestigious London & Toronto Gay & Lesbian Film Festivals and it has recently been shown at festivals in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
101 RENT BOYS is shot on location in various motel rooms situated on the length of the Santa Monica Boulevard, and features 101 different hustlers. Although the film features 101 different people, it focuses on the lives (and loves) of a few key men. They have been chosen to reflect the immense diversity of the boys of the Santa Monica Strip. An amazing thing happens when you cross a video camera with award-winning directors, $50 and a hustler.
The pieces are slickly grouped to cover certain themes; such as their first john, gay for pay, homelessness, drugs or the reason that they began to work as a rent boy. It also explores the variety of insiders` opinion on subjects such as; how a rent boy should dress, speak, act, think, give head, receive head, increase cash flow, keep safe, walk, eat, smoke, and flirt.
As the film fades to black, we`re left with a pervasive sense that this world is one big hustle with no beginning, no end. Their stories are endless, and universal.
Scored with an amazing soundtrack from RCA recording artist, Kristine W, 101 RENT BOYS is as touching as it is disturbing.