That
Man: Peter Berlin
Saturday, October 22 at 4pm
at the Hollywood Theatre
Directed by Jim Tushinski
USA - 80 minutes, In English
With his trademark Dutchboy haircut, Tom of Finland physique, and oh-so-tight trousers, Peter Berlin was the poster boy for the hedonistic and sexually-liberated 1970s. Jim Tushinski¹s fascinating portrait, That Man: Peter Berlin, traces Berlin's story over the past 40 years, from his birth in wartime Germany to his current life in San Francisco, and shows the human being behind the icon. Photographed by Robert Mapplethorpe, filmed by Andy Warhol and lusted after by countless gay men, Berlin was more than just a piece of eye candy. A talented artist, photographer, and filmmaker, he starred in two underground gay erotic classics from the early 1970s. But he was his own biggest creation, a carefully constructed, unattainable icon awash in eroticism. His many fans and friends, such as director John Waters, author Armistead Maupin, adult film legend Jack Wrangler, filmmaker Wakefield Poole, photographers Rick Castro and Dan Nicoletta, and artist Robert W. Richards, are interviewed and offer their reflections on Berlin. Most illuminating and exciting, of course, is the extensive commentary by Berlin himself, still looking remarkably boyish in his early 60s. Tushinski's interviews are complemented perfectly with an astonishing archive of photos and film clips that reveal the full scope of Berlin¹s impressive body of work.
