Hot Sheet: Our Antibullying Hero

DVD: Funkytown / Lifestyles / Boys for Sale
If you’re old enough to remember 1976, when the clothes had more spandex and V-necks, you’ll love director Daniel Roby’s Genie Award-winning disco-era drama Funkytown (Wolfe Video), which debuted on DVD this week. Set in Montreal in the 1970s, gay screenwriter Steve Galluccio’s film follows the king of disco, an ingenue, a desperate music producer, and a man with a secret life — all juggling the changes in sex, freedom, and sobriety that came with the era that introduced us to excess as the norm. There’s plenty of gay and bisexual action among the cast, but sexy Justin Chatwin (Steve from Showtime’s hit series Shameless) as Tito, a closeted thug with gay-bashing friends, is magnetic. Shop, watch the trailer, or see a clip or two. $19.95, WolfeVideo.com

Lifestyles: A Cultural Look at Gay Male Sexuality Vol. 1 features three films, including the legendary Taxi Zum Klo, Frank Ripploh’s 1981 queer film classic about a gay schoolteacher with a double life who spends a great deal of his time hooking up with other men in public bathrooms. It was widely considered the first mainstream gay film, albeit with risqué content. In addition, the upbeat doc Kink Crusaders goes inside the International Mr. Leather Competition, while the third flick in the set, Uncle Bob, looks at the life of Robert Opel, a gay activist who streaked through the 46th Academy Awards, became famous, then was murdered in 1979. (BreakingGlassPictures.com)

Meanwhile, Boys for Sale Vol. 1 offers three different looks at sex workers: Rent Boys (filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim’s frank and empathetic look at the historic causes and lasting effects of Berlin's hustler trade), All Boys (a revealing documentary about Eastern Europe’s adult film history), and Men for Sale (which unflinchingly documents the lives of 11 sex workers over the course of one year). (BreakingGlassPictures.com)