The best Al Parker’s movies

Long before films like LOVE, SIMON and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME became common fare at the multiplex, the only places gay men could see their lives and lusts depicted on screen with any degree of honesty was at their local all-male adult cinema. From coming out stories to romances, melodramas to camp comedies, the hundreds of films churned out by the gay adult film industry throughout the 70s and 80s were a driving force behind the spread of gay culture and constitute a largely forgotten document of an entire generation's realities and fantasies. A video companion to the Artforum ‘Best of 2018’ Instagram feed of the same name, ASK ANY BUDDY uses fragments from 126 theatrical feature films to create a kaleidoscopic snapshot of urban gay life in the era — or at least how it looked in the movies.