Ideally, a documentary like Mr. Leather will appeal to both the leather community—the makers would really have to screw up for them not to like it—and non-leatherpeople who may or may not be curious. A good documentary will make you interested in its subject, if only for the time you’re watching it.
I can’t say Mr. Leather enhanced my interest in the leather community but it held my attention (except when so-called ‘leather-community experts’ pontificated at length) as it built to the coronation of Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2003.
The film begins with preliminary ‘feeder contests’ at local bars (not mentioning that the L.A. contest is itself a preliminary to the International Mr. Leather competition, even though filmmaker Jason Garrett is English and so was that year’s international winner, John Pendal; it’s like filming the Miss Iowa pageant and calling it Miss America) but devotes the bulk of its time to acquainting us with the nine finalists in the week or so before the contest at the El Rey Theatre.
We see them by themselves, and with partners in many cases, and hear their views on a limited variety of topics, including their sexual practices.
Someone points out that it’s not like American Idol because the audience doesn’t get to vote, only the judges. Another difference is that the only talent required is bullshitting. Although contestants parade around in everything from leather jockstraps to full regalia to the delight of the audience, it’s not a beauty pageant; they’re judged primarily on a 90-second speech they give and an interview with the judges on the morning of the finals.
Though self-described as ‘marginalized,’ the leather community is hardly underprivileged (especially the guy who says he’s spent $1,500 on gear this year—’and it’s only March!’), which keeps Mr. Leather from being as compelling as, say, Paris Is Burning.
The five DVD extras are featurettes of material deleted, wisely in most cases, from the feature. The ‘extended versions’ of The Feeder Contests show the right choices were made of what to include in the first place. You may enjoy watching Chris Woods work out at the gym (though not as much as he obviously enjoys watching himself) and Zak Spears filming Hard Cops (although no hardcore footage is included).
‘Some Leather History’ is brief but interesting in tying the origin of the community to returning military men from World War II who had become too butch to conform to gay stereotypes. ‘A Little Bit of BDSM (Never Hurt Anyone)’ may interest novices, but how long can you watch Daddy Don whip his partner, Richard Patterson, before you feel like you’re the one enduring the pain?