News Release
For immediate distribution

Eye on the Guy: Alan B. Stone & the Age of Beefcake
Premieres at Hot Docs, April 29 in Toronto

Eye on the Guy: Alan B. Stone & the Age of Beefcake, a witty 48-minute documentary film exploring the world of physique photography, premieres in Toronto at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival on Saturday, April 29, at 9:45 pm at the ROM Theatre. The film screens a second time at 4:30 pm on Wednesday, May 3, also at the ROM Theatre. Eye on the Guy is an engaging and elegant blend of cultural history and portraiture, exploring this little-known subculture that paved the way for gay liberation, revealing the artistic legacy of one of its unsung masters, photographer Alan B. Stone.

Hot Docs will screen a final selection of 99 documentaries from Canada and around the world at its highly prestigious 13th edition, between April 28 and May 7. Each year, Hot Docs, North America's premier documentary film festival, welcomes more than a thousand delegates from around the world – producers, directors, buyers, network representatives and distributors - to celebrate the world's finest documentaries.

Photographer Alan B. Stone was a quiet suburbanite, astute businessman… and a master of the underground male pin-up. In the 50s and 60s, long before Calvin Klein's poster-boys marched into public view, Stone had his “eye on the guy”. He was a daring cultural pioneer, taking erotic photos of men and running an international mail-order business from his Montreal basement when it was still illegal to perform homosexual acts in Canada. This native Montrealer also captured the city's character in its last days as the nation's metropolis, as well as leaving us a rich visual document of the Canadian West of the 1960s.

Stone's photography forms the heart of Eye on the Guy, an arresting kaleidoscope of images ranging from sexy beefcake to lyrical scenes of rodeo life. We discover this artist further through lively interviews with his contemporaries and inner circle. Fitness magnate Ben Weider traces the roots of physique photography to the post-war bodybuilding movement; former Stone models, including his pin-up star Mike Mangione, recall the heyday of Stone's photography studio; and friends and family remember the enigmatic man himself. Other featured interviews include Tom Waugh, author of Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film, and Ross Higgins, co-founder of the Quebec Gay Archives, repository of the Stone collection.

Eye on the Guy was co-directed by Philip Lewis, a former NFB publicist whose director credits include the first season of the series Absolutely Cree, and Jean-François Monette, whose many credits include Anatomy of Desire and Take Out, both award-winners. Lewis and Monette co-wrote the script with writer and archivist Ross Higgins. Barbara Brown, whose credits include Their Brothers' Keepers and Watermarks, was picture editor; principal director of photography was Peter Krieger; jazz musician Jeff Johnston composed the original score; Francois Thisdale (El Ring) created the sound-scape; and sound editing was done by Bruno Belanger (The Cross and Bones).

Eye on the Guy: Alan B. Stone & the Age of Beefcake is an Amérimage-Spectra production, produced in association with CHUM Television, a division of CHUM limited, Canal D, Out TV, and Bravo. Eye on the Guy was produced by Lisa Cochrane, Pierre L. Touchette and Alain Simard, producers of The Cross and Bones, Jean-Pierre Perreault: Giant Steps and Amelia, among other notable films. Luc Châtelain was the executive producer. Films en Vue will handle international distribution and sales.

This film is generously supported by Sodec: Société de développement des entreprises culturelles - the Film and Television Tax Credit - Gestion SODEC, the Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit – Canada and the Canadian Television Fund - Created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Cable Industry - CTF : Licence Fee Program and PRIM Media Arts Centre.
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