[#Outfest40] ‘All Man: The International Male Story’ Review — A brisk doc about gay history

A review of the new documentary, at Outfest

Directors Bryan Darling and Jesse Finley Reed’s All Man: The International Male Story chronicles the rise and fall of International Male — a mail-order clothing catalogue that doubled as a beefcake pictorial, beloved by gay men around the country. It’s a brisk, breezy documentary, one that zips through decades of the magazine’s history and tacks its cultural impact to the story of the gay rights movement over the past few decades. And it’s an important reminder that preserving queer cultural ephemera like this, is important!

International Male was founded by Gene Burkard, the man who revolutionized men’s undergarments by designing what he called the Jock Sock. It was sort of a quasi-jockstrap, minus the strap… just a cup to hold stuff together in the front. The ads in magazines like Playboy were a sensation, and Burkard realized he could reach a gay male audience by putting flamboyant clothes on ultra-masculine, uber-manly male models. The clothes would be a flashy alternative to the gray flannel suit that it seemed like every man wore, and the models would be fun to look at, too. He put together a ragtag staff made up of fashion designers, art directors, salesmen, salesmen who would design…