This post was submitted by Ben K.

By now, the debate over the pervasiveness of new media technologies is dead, been dead.  Some people fight on, they don’t own cell phones, they don’t have a facebook page, they refuse to text message, but the battle is by and far lost, and the state of contemporary society is one that exists within the realm of the new medias.  The Internet age is where we fully live, along with all of the trappings that come with it.

Our consumption habits in nearly every way have changed: the way we read, the way shop, the way we date, and the way we get off.  I’m sure you’ve heard the song “The Internet is for Porn” from Avenue Q, and I think we all can agree that one of the dominant industries online is the porn industry.  From free sites to paid ones, porn is everywhere and easily accessible.  Is this bad or good? Depends on your perspective, and the answer, I’m sure, lies somewhere in a grey area out there. But I’m not so interested in taking a stand here and now.  The documentary, College Boys Live, is seemingly of the same opinion.

Tucked away in a normal suburban home outside of Orlando is the home of CollegeBoysLive.com, a website that monitors a house that is rigged with 32 cameras allowing online voyeurs to tune in at any time for an all access pass into the lives of its gay residents.  College Boys Live is the intriguing documentary exploring the lives of young men who, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, go about their day-to-day dealings on live-feed cameras. The website attracts thousands of visitors from around the world everyday, giving all who visit an intimate look into the actions of a group of college-aged men living in a large home in the sunshine state.

The film follows the owner of the site, his boyfriend, and three of the housemates, who have gathered from all around the country. The house inhabitants are expected to regularly chat with members of the site, while every facet of their lives, from private conversations to sex, is documented.

The film offers compelling portraits of the young men who are on the site, following them to their hometowns, exposing their families, and delving into their personal time. What follows is a humanistic, seedy tale of angry neighbors and broken lives, with the housemates attempting to make life-altering changes, which will, hopefully, lead to a better future beyond what they have left behind.

If you are looking for some exciting behind-the-scenes porn film, this is not the movie for you.  Instead, it exposes the reality behind the website, one that is not always very pretty.  I would contend that the film does not overtly take sides on the issue of the website, but instead stays back to allow the action to play out in front of the camera.  Now I’m not naïve enough to believe that the filmmakers don’t have an opinion or an agenda that was played out in the editing room, but the truth at which they seek was waiting to be captured.

I’m not here to make judgments on the participants in the film, and I think largely the documentary itself also stands back from making a judgment.  The owner of the site, Zac and his much younger boyfriend Jonathan are the driving force that runs and maintains the site; they also act as the quasi-parents for the “college boys” who live in the house.  We witness the current housemates of J.C., Tim, and Chuck during their stay in the house.  All have come for different reasons, and all eventually leave for different reasons.

I don’t want to give anything away, but the movie’s strongest points are when it allows us to travel back to the hometowns of the three housemates and allow us into their past.  The commonality between all is a drive for acceptance and the need for a change.  They are without many options to achieve not just their dreams, but also the most basic tenants of happiness that we all want- security, acceptance, love, and the feeling of a purpose.  The intimate interviews throughout the film seek to deliver this same point.

Beyond those who live in the house, we are also introduced to Charlie, a devoted fan of the website, who is so obsessed that he moves to Orlando and becomes friends and a regular visitor with all those in the house.  To watch Charlie’s interactions with the house, especially with one of the guys in particular, reinforces the void that these sites fill in the lives of both those who participate in pornography and those who become obsessive consumers of it.

The movie works so well because it doesn’t make the judgments for us, it doesn’t tell us what to think, and is able to push its narrative forward in a manner that never seems exploitive of the participants.  It gives us no easy answers, no snap judgments on the guys, because maybe that grey area is so wide that it is impossible to do so.

I first saw the film as I was volunteering last year with Chicago’s LGBT film festival, Reeling.  It is as fresh and intriguing as it was then, and more than worth a viewing.  I recommend watching it with someone else, because I guarantee you’re going to want to talk about it and debate after you see it.

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