March 12, 2015 (London, England) - Selections from the archives of filmmaker and photographer Bob Mizer’s Athletic Model Guild will be on display later this month at the British Film Institute’s annual Flare festival.
The event, hailed as one of the leading LGBT film festivals in the United Kingdom, will feature “The
Golden Age of the American Male,” a compilation of several of Mizer’s physique films from the 1950s and ‘60s, on March 21 and 22. Flare will take place March 19-29 at BFI’s headquarters in London.
Set against the backdrop of a pre-Stonewall America, “The Golden Age of the American Male” features films whose characters, from hoodlums to soldiers to centurions, are both playful and erotic. A talk led by author and film historian Rupert Smith will precede the March 21 screening.
“The British Film Institute is one of Europe's most important archives of moving images and I am very excited to bring Bob Mizer’s films to their venue,” says Dennis Bell, president of the Bob Mizer Foundation. “The excellent team at BFI truly understand the importance of how Mizer pioneered an effort to obtain civil rights and freedoms that we take for granted today. This film screening will introduce a new young international audience to his work and will have an incredible impact on our mission at the Bob Mizer Foundation. There is no better place to spend an evening in London than surrounded by Mizer’s hoodlums, sailors, and other bad boys.”
Both screenings of the 65-minute film are now sold out. Watch our Facebook (Bob Mizer Foundation) and Twitter pages (@MizerFoundation) in the coming days for more information and news about the festival as it approaches. And use the hashtag #BFIFlare to spread the word about the film and the festival online.
“The Golden Age of the American Male” has been compiled by Billy Miller and Dennis Bell, president of the Bob Mizer Foundation (www.bobmizerfoundation.org).
The Bob Mizer Foundation Inc. was established in 2010 by photographer Dennis Bell for charitable and educational purposes, and as an organization committed to promoting and preserving the works of progressive and controversial photographers. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Foundation is supported by grants, donations, and the contributions made by its devoted members, interns, and volunteers.