EXCLUSIVE: Matt Bomer narrates All Man: The International Male Story, the feature documentary debut of Bryan Darling and Jesse Finley Reed that is having its world premiere this weekend at the Tribeca Festival.
The pic, which screens in the fest’s Spotlight Documentary section, charts the journey across three decades of iconic men’s fashion catalog International Male, and its impact on fashion, masculinity and gay rights. Click above for the first look at the film, which bows Sunday at 8:30 p.m. at Village East by Angelika: Theater 1.
Founded by Gene Burkard in the 1970s, the catalog focused on all flamboyant in clothes, from wild-patterned shirts and mesh tank tops to the bikini-est of bikini underwear, all modeled by chiseled men held up as paragons of masculinity. Although in parts cheeky (no pun intended) by design, the documentary zeroes in on the influence of the magazine-style mail-order catalog, which proved fashion’s power to unite the interests of gay and straight men, mainstreamed a more cosmopolitan expression — and almost single-handedly launched “metrosexual” as a trend.
By its apex, the catalog had a circulation of more than 3 million and was bringing in $120 million in revenues.
“Once upon a time, a small band of outsiders formed an unlikely family,” Bomer says in voice-over in the teaser, from the script by Emmy- and Peabody-winning filmmaker Peter Jones (Stardust: The Bette Davis Story, Johnny Carson: King of Late-Night). “Together, they created something that would change the way men would look at themselves, and how the world would look at them.”
Check out the teaser trailer above.
