Before tech companies changed the Bay Area landscape, San Francisco was a haven for "misfits." Before the LGBT acronym was coined, people who were LGBT could find sanctuary in the City, and thousands did. Thrown out of their homes and communities for being who they are, they came to San Francisco and reinvented themselves.
It was during this wild and crazy time of free expression that a young filmmaker named Toby Ross expressed himself artistically through the unlikely lens of a gay porn camera. Ross films like
Reflections of Youth,
Do Me Evil,
Cruising '57, among others, were noted for more than just the beauty of his models. Ross experimented with lighting, often inserting expressionistic black and white shots into his color productions.
Ross did more than sexually arouse his audience. He created mood pieces, and he took his work very seriously.
Ross is the subject of
Toby Ross and the 70s, a new, feature length documentary about his work. The documentary is now available on DVD at Amazon, and for streaming at Ross' website. Still active today in the soft-core field, Ross spoke to
SF Weekly about a bygone era that we'll never see again.
SF Weekly: Tell us your backstory. Where are you from?
