Buck Angel documentary ‘Mr. Angel’ DVD: Life of the transgender adult star
In the United States, it’s Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, Nov. 28. It’s an inspirational time of the year for millions, so what’s more appropriate than the December 3 release of QC Cinema’s DVD Mr. Angel? Directed by Dan Hunt, Mr. Angel is described in the film’s press release as “an inspirational story of rare perseverance” that features “an unlikely hero”: Buck Angel, himself described as a “transgender advocate, educator, and porn pioneer.”
As found in the SXSW Film Festival’s synopsis of Mr. Angel, Buck Angel “was born female yet always knew he was male.” His parents raised him as a boy until he reached adolescence, and that’s when things took a downhill turn: drug addiction, homelessness, suicide attempts. Eventually, Buck Angel underwent a double mastectomy.
Mr. Angel then follows Angel’s trajectory “as he creates a new genre in porn trying to change the belief that you need a penis to be a man.” The film also shows a family reunion with his parents, at least for some time unaware of their son’s adult-movie career.
Buck Angel documentary: Interviews with Sasha Grey, Michael Lucas
Among those interviewed in Mr. Angel are sex educator and Fleshbot CEO Lux Alptraum, actress Sasha Grey (whose efforts range from the adult video Throat: A Cautionary Tale to Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience), talk show host Tyra Banks, and porn actor/producer Michael Lucas.
Mr. Angel premiered at the 2013 SXSW Film Festival. The Buck Angel documentary has since been screened at Rio International Film Festival, London Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Philadelphia QFest, Atlanta LGBT Film Festival, Inside Out Toronto, and other venues.
‘Mr. Angel’ director Dan Hunt
Besides Mr. Angel, Dan Hunt has directed a couple of episodes of the sexual diversity-oriented PBS newsmagazine In the Life and co-directed the 2006 documentary Cruel and Unusual, about transgender women locked up in men’s prisons.
Buck Angel documentary Mr. Angel image: Breaking Glass Pictures / QC Cinema.