Naughty and Nice: The Physique Films of Bob Mizer

From the late 1940s until his death in 1992, pioneering physique photographer, filmmaker, and magazine publisher Bob Mizer produced an astonishing amount of work through his company, the Los Angeles-based Athletic Model Guild. The archive at the Bob Mizer Foundation contains more than a million still photographs and negatives (seen most widely in Mizer’s magazine “Physique Pictorial”) and thousands of films–all of which were nearly lost forever. Arrested several times early in his career for his near-nude homoerotic images of young men clad only in posing straps, Mizer helped to break the censorship of gay imagery in the days before Stonewall. This program features a brief overview of Mizers short films, from early black-and-white posing strap films to later fully-nude films in color. Mizer’s models were young and buff – bodybuilders, on-leave sailors and marines, wanna-be actors, hustlers and rough trade – posing for the camera, wrestling, or acting in simple narratives, some hamming it up and others trying to mask their awkwardness. By today’s standards, Mizer made “nice” films, with just a bit of naughty tease (he intensely disliked his brief foray into hardcore films); and as charming and joyful as they are, one doesn’t forget the harsh cultural context in which they were made. Featuring a selection of Mizer’s films, showing in brand-new HD transfers, courtesy of the Bob Mizer Foundation.