“An eye-openingly raunchy documentary, lovingly crafted” - Star Observer

“An uncensored and surprisingly tender tale” - Inside Vancouver

“Everything you could ask for – political, provocative, educational” - The WOW Report

Watch “Raw! Uncut! Video!” now on Vimeo

RAW! UNCUT! VIDEO! chronicles the rise and fall of homegrown gay porn studio Palm Drive Video, and explores how a devoted couple helped battle a devastating health crisis by promoting kinky sex.

Legendary leatherman Jack Fritscher met Mark Hemry in 1979 at Harvey Milk’s birthday party – and the two fell head over heels in love. When the AIDS epidemic swept through San Francisco, the couple left the city to begin a new venture: turning a rural ranch in Sonoma County into a safe-sex porn studio that offered viewers new sexual possibilities in an age of plague. Casting rugged non-professional models to explore their unique erotic fantasies onscreen, the studio explored a wild array of queer kinks – and helped champion sex-positivity in the porn industry.

Directed and Produced by Ryan A. White and Alex C.

Produced by Todd Verow, Charles Lum and Paul Lee

Original Music by Jess Wamre

Best Documentary - GAZE International LGBTQ+ Film Festival (Dublin, Ireland)

Best Documentary - Porn Film Festival Vienna (Vienna, Austria)

Best Documentary - Hacker Porn Film Festival (Rome, Italy)

Audience Award: Best Documentary - Cinekink

Audience Award: Best Documentary - Rainbow Visions Film Festival (Edmonton, Canada)

Audience Award - WICKED Queer: Boston LGBT+ Film Festival (Boston, Massachusetts)

Honorable Mention: Best Documentary - TLV/Fest: The Tel Aviv International Film Festival (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Movie trailer for Raw! Uncut! Video!

Watch

Screenings

Inside Porn — March 2024 sponsored by PrEP in Italia

Porn Film Festival Amsterdam — February 2024

DFT Philly: Sicko Screenings — November 2023

Wicked Queer: Docs — November 2023

Porn Film Festival Barcelona — October 2023

Gender Border Milan Film Festival — Nov 3-6, 2022

MIX Copenhagen — Oct 21-30, 2022

The Leather Archives & Museum — Oct 16, 2022

The Roxie, San Francisco — September 28 & 29, 2022

Fish&Chips International Erotic Film Festival — Sept 22-25, 2022

San Francisco Porn Film Festival — Aug 24-27, 2022

Revelation Perth International Film Festival — July 18-24, 2022

CinéPride Nantes — June 14-19, 2022

Post Pxrn Film Festival — June 7-12, 2022

Hacker Porn Film Festival — May 10-15, 2022

Reel Out Charlotte — May 11-15, 2022

Cinekink — May 4-8, 2022

Queer Zagreb — Apr 26-30, 2022

Smut Antwerp — Apr 22-24, 2022

Mardi gras Film Festival — Feb 17-Mar 3, 2022

Excentrico Festival — Jan 22-30, 2022

Melbourne Queer Film Festival — Nov 18-29, 2021

Chéris-Chéries — Nov 20-30, 2021

Image+Nation Film Festival — Nov 18-28, 2021

Pink Screens Brussels — Nov 11-20, 2021

TLVFest — Nov 11-20, 2021

Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest — Nov 11, 2021

Rainbow Visions Film Festival — Nov 3-7, 2021

Berlin Porn Film Festival — Oct 28 & 29, 2021

Reel Affirmations Film Festival — Oct 21-24, 2021

NewFest — October 23, 2021

Reel Pride Film Festival — Oct 12-17, 2021

Taiwan International Queer Film Festival — Oct 8-31, 2021

Reel Q Pittsburgh LGBT Film Festival — Oct 8-16, 2021

Oslo Fusion Film Festival — Oct 1-10, 2021

GAZE — Sept 29-Oct 3, 2021

qFlix — Sept 26-Oct 3, 2021

Fabulous Independent Film Festival — Sept 23-Oct 2, 2021

Out on Film — Sept 23-Oct 3, 2021

Queer Lisboa — Sept 17-25, 2021

L’etrange Festival — Sept 8-9, 2021

aGLIFF / Austin LGBT Festival — Aug 26-Sept 6, 2021

CinemaQ Film Festival — August 12-22, 2021

OUTfest — August 15, 2021

Out on Screen, Vancouver Queer Film Festival — August 12-22, 2021

Damn These Heels — July 8-19, 2021

FRAMELINE45 — June 17-27, 2021

MOLODIST (International Premiere) — May 29-June 6, 2021

OUTshine (World Premiere) — April 28-May 2, 2021

WICKED QUEER (Sneak Preview) — April 8-18, 2021

Press

'Raw! Uncut! Video!' Palm Drive's
Pioneering Porn

by David-Elijah Nahmod, published August 2022
Read the article

Raw! Uncut! Video! A Love Story About Fetish Porn

“‘Raw! Uncut! Video!’ – packaged as ‘a love story about fetish porn’, is an eye openingly raunchy documentary, lovingly crafted to tell the historically significant journey of Palm Drive Video.”
Read the article

Inside Palm Drive Video, the Notorious Kink and Fetish Gay Porn Studio

Rick Castro interviews Jack Fritscher for AnOther magazine.
Legendary leatherman Jack Fritscher shares his tales of editing BDSM and leather publication Drummer, his relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, and the new documentary about his production company Palm Drive Video.
Read the article

Metro Weekly - ☆☆☆☆ / Critics Pick

“Filmed and compiled with incredible attention to detail and sensitivity for the context and importance of its subject, *Raw! Uncut! Video!* is a love letter not just to Palm Drive Video or even the history and cultural significance of adult filmmaking, but also to the ways sexuality thrives in an uncomprehending and hostile world.” - Sean Maunier, Metro Weekly
Read the article

The Utah Review - “A fascinating documentary”

Utah Film Center Damn These Heels 2021: More historical testaments of activism in Raw! Uncut! Video!, Rebel Dykes, Genderation
Read the article

A&U Magazine - “Just as rowdy and boisterous, as eye-opening and wild – and just as important – as the original Palm Drive videos themselves.”

Film review by Hank trout.
Read the article

Fucking Young - “Epic”

An interview with Anna Barr.
Read the article

WOW Report

WOW Report has named “Raw! Uncut! Video!” as one of the top 21 movies to see in 2021.
Read the article

ADVOCATE

"Raw! Uncut! Video!" Tells the Story of Early Kink and Fetish
Read the article

Raw! Uncut! Video! Removed from Instagram

Wohler Film’s statement regarding the homophobic removal of Raw! Uncut! Video! from social media site Instagram.

The Filmmakers

Ryan A. White - *Director/Producer*

Born in Big Sur, California, Ryan White is a documentary filmmaker whose award-winning films have screened around the world. He spent four years in Hanoi, Vietnam working as Film Advisor for the World Wildlife Fund’s Greater Mekong Program, then relocated to Bangkok, Thailand, where he produced and directed two documentary features, *Camp Unity* (2010) and *Mondo Banana* (2013). His short film *Cruising Elsewhere* (2016) was awarded Best Short Film at the Tampa Bay Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and Best Documentary Short at CineKink NYC. Other documentary credits include co-directing *Dirt McComber: Last of the Mohicans* (2018), producing *The Organic Life* (2013) and associate producing *Pray Away* (2020) and *Out Run* (2016). Ryan also lectures in the Department of Communication at California State University, East Bay and the Cinematic Arts & Technology Department at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Todd Verow - Producer

Todd Verow attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. He made short experimental films and worked as a cinematographer before making his feature film debut with Frisk in 1996 (Sundance, Berlin & Toronto). Starting his own production company Bangor Films, Todd has directed over twenty-five features and numerous shorts, establishing himself as the most prolific auteur emeritus of the New Queer Cinema.

Charles Lum - Producer

Charles Lum, aka clublum, received his MFA in Photography from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2004, after 25 years scouting and managing locations for TV commercials and classic feature films like Wall Street, Fatal Attraction and Sid & Nancy. His short videos have screened internationally in museum, art and film venues.

Paul Lee - Producer

Based in Toronto, Paul Lee has produced, co-produced, and associate-produced over 50 films - more than half of which have been award-winning LGBTQ films. LGBTQ productions include San Francisco filmmaker Jenni Olson’s Berlin-premiered Blue Diary and Sundance-premiered The Joy of Life, and the Berlin-premiered Below the Belt by Toronto filmmakers Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert. Since 1991, Paul has organized, programmed, and curated film festivals in 25 countries around the world. His own films, Thick Lips Thin Lips (1994), These Shoes Weren’t Made for Walking (1995), and The Offering (1999) have screened at hundreds of film festivals and won numerous international awards.