The 'art films' that launched a thousand gym memberships — and changed how we see the male body.
Richard Fontaine and Bob Mizer started the current exploration of the male nude in film and photography. The two shared ideas props and models and reinvented some of the sexual icons that we all still recognise today. The gladiator the sailor, the cowboy… Starting with posing-straps and graduating to nudes their "art studies" enlisted the talents of up-and-coming actors and bodybuilders. This film recalls that era.
Production
Fontaine-Mizer collaboration that defined an underground aesthetic.
Costume
The posing strap: minimalism as maximal statement.
Director
Dick Fontaine
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Fontaine and Mizer's Athletic Model Guild operated semi-legally for decades, selling 'physique' magazines that coded queer desire through bodybuilding culture.
Many AMG models were aspiring actors who later appeared in mainstream Hollywood; the 'art film' credit was often their only screen work.
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