Product Description

At the age of 40, wildly successful gay adult film star Colton Ford decides to leave porn behind and to pursue his dream: music. He definitely has the talent, but can he successfully use his porn past to build up a new career as a singer-songwriter? Christopher Long's intelligent and appealing documentary, Naked Fame, attempts to answer that question, following Colton and his life partner, fellow adult film star Blake Harper, as Colton moves from the film studio to the music recording studio. This documentary explores the inner-workings of the music industry, capturing the intense emotional drama involved in the pursuit of stardom against the stigma of a porn-star past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46433 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-02
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Customer Reviews

One part aspiration, nine parts desperation
What I found fascinating about this documentary is that it confirms something I've always suspected--that the adult film industry (euphemistically called "the industry" in this documentary) is becoming increasingly mainstream. Porn stars, it seems, want the same things as you and me: a stable relationship with an attractive, supportive, and caring significant other, a meaningful career that pays well (one of the porn star veterans in this film made a mere $30K in his best year), and a little respect. Glenn (aka Colton Ford) is a singer who had hoped a porn career would get him the needed notoriety to jumpstart a serious music career (that is, if providing vocals to house music counts as serious music). His life partner Peter (aka Blake Harper) somehow managed to squeeze getting a nursing degree into his grueling film schedule (he's turned in over 100 adult film performances if I heard him right). By the end of the documentary, Peter is providing the stability in the family while Glenn continues to pursue his musical ambitions. Playing Margaret Hamilton to Glenn's Dorothy and Peter's Glinda, is Kyle (aka Whatever). Like Glenn and Peter, Kyle wants out of the industry, though I'm not sure there's much else a person with his kind of potty mouth can do. At the beginning of the film, he's Glenn's manager and friend; by the end of the film he's out of the picture (literally, one caption reads "Kyle refused to be interviewed").

In a world where tsunamis and hurricanes devastate coastal communities, is this an important film? Of course not. Does it offer an interesting peek into a little-seen world? Yes. Glenn and Peter are attractive young men and nice enough guys. They are not riddled by guilt and remorse. They are simply frustrated like everyone else considering a career change. But they don't waste a lot of timein blaming others (with the obvious exception of Kyle). And they seem ready to do what they need to to get on with things. In a very low-key sort of way, this is an inspirational film. Worth a look, anyway.

CLONES: The Next Generation
Two members of a gay male couple want to leave the adult film industry. One wants to be a singer, the other an actor. You only get to see brief nudity near the start and finish of this film. I guess you have to get their REAL performances to see more. Yes, Glenn the wannabe-singer was/is talented. However, he sings with that George Michael-esque voice that can be common. Such a voice was imitated in the South Park movie back in 1999. Further, he wants to go into dance music which really doesn't bring fame to its makers. Think about what happened to Salma Hayek's character in "54," for example.

This movie confirmed every controlling image of West Hollywood. It's filled with men who are young, muscular, beautiful, and of course full of attitude! They are very fashion-conscious and totally nonchalant toward drug usage. That whole area might as well have a sign saying, "Non-beautiful guys not welcome!"

I guess all that butch behavior in adult features is just acting. These guys have stereotyped accents. They make comments such as "I am so over this!" and "I had to take a pill just like Judy Garland." There's crying, hissy fits, recounting what therapists told them, etc. Homophobes (and of course, I disapprove of such bigotry) will cringe here at what some refer to as "gay accents."

I do think this may be an instructive documentary for people of all sexualities who want to be famous. This guy had to market himself in New York City. He had fights and splits with his manager. His boyfriend is told, "Stay away, because future stars need to look single." The wannabe singer has to take advice (read: criticism) from as many places as he could get it. This taps into the aspects of stardom that people enjoy seeing in the "American Idol" series.

Like documentaries for Ron Jeremy, Annabel Chong, and Seymore B*tts, this documentary showed relatives who are knowledgeable and accepting of their family member's work in the adult business. You only see Glenn's parents briefly at the start and finish of this work. I wish you could have seen more of them. Countless gay works show family members abandoning their gay relatives, but here they are supportive. It would have been great to see how these straight parents learned to accept their son's sexual orientation.

Despite the numerous gym bunnies in this documentary, there were several bears here: Chi Chi LaRue (which I learned is pronounced with a "sh," rather than a harder "ch"), Bruce Vilanch, and a nameless impresario. For those of us who like big guys, it would have been great to see these bears. Why do the thin guys get so show so much flesh and yet, we only get to see a partially unbuttoned shirt on one of the bears?

Glenn's partner reluctantly returns to being a nurse. However, nurses can make a TON of money. This man stated that he only made $30,000 at most in adult features: that's a fraction of what nurses can make, especially nurses that don't have children. He didn't fail by returning to this profession since it's more lucrative. He grows a beard when he does so. I think it's meant to be a sign of respectability, but it makes him look a lot like the gay conservative editorialist Andrew Sullivan.

In many ways, this was just the GWM's version of "Hoop Dreams.

"Is He Too Sexy for the Straight Industry?"
Colton Ford aka as Glenn by his family, friends, and fellow ex-porn star/boyfriend Peter/Blake Harper decides to abandon his successful porn career and launch his music career at the age of 40. Having done just 9 gay porn flicks in a year or so, he was considered to be the hottest and most handsome porn star that would match to other retired or vanished stars like Ryan Idol. Ford certainly is a talented singer and he's kind of a more muscular version of George Michael, and even his voice is similar to him. It's kind of unfortunate that he had done porn and trying to crossover at middle age. Will he be accepted by the straight scene and can he truly let go of his porn past?

Blake Harper is also the star of this captivating documentary despite not being on the cover. He's done 60 gay porn flicks and one was with Ford. He's equally tired of the porn industry and hoped to find work as an actor in mainstream industry. I was surprised that he just made $30,000 the most a year working in the porn industry. He shared his feelings about what it's like to be approached by so many of his fans and sometimes people treated him disrespectfully. In order to survive financially, he had to take a fulltime nursing job while supporting Glenn's pursuit to get a record deal in NYC.

Legendary gay porn directress Chi Chi LaRue appears in several interviews scenes in and out of drag. She/he talks about Ford and Harper and what kind of challenges and rejections they would have to face when they make their crossover. She also talks about anti-drug abuse, safe sex, and her own frustration of working in the gay porn industry.

Glenn's mother appeared briefly in one scene and she spoke about her son's dream of becoming a superstar. His father is very open-minded and supportive.

Ford's manager Kyle who is an ex-porn star clashed with him and eventually got fired. There is just several musical/dance performances from Ford, and he's totally drop dead gorgeous on stage. Unfortunately, the sound and lighting were rather low-budget. I actually enjoyed the scenes of Ford and Harper together. There is nothing pornographic about this film and it's worthwhile if you like documentaries or if you are a fan of either Ford and Harper. On the special feature segment, there's a music video of Ford and Pepper Mashay's duet single entitled "Sealed, Signed, and Delivered."