Seed Money: The Chuck Holmes Story

Chuck Holmes founded Falcon Studios in San Francisco in 1971 and built it into the most influential gay adult film company of its era, shaping the look and self-image of a generation of gay men in the years after Stonewall. As his fortune grew, so did his ambitions: Holmes became a major donor to the Human Rights Campaign, the LGBT Victory Fund and AIDS organizations, only to find that the political establishment he funded was often embarrassed to be seen with him. Michael Stabile's 72-minute documentary traces that uneasy relationship between money, respectability and liberation, drawing on interviews with John Waters, Jake Shears, Chi Chi LaRue, Jeff Stryker and Holly Woodlawn among others. Holmes died in 2000, and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center's main building now bears his name. Seed Money premiered at Boston's Wicked Queer festival in 2015.