Very interesting piece. Great read. What do you think?
Is “Dawson’s 20 Load Weekend” the Most Important Gay Porn Film Ever Made?
By Mark S. King
The annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco is noted for its unbridled embrace of every star in our sexual constellation. Even the fearless leather community that founded the event can sometimes appear tame amidst the outlandish kinks and clothing – and lack thereof – on display along the city’s tilted streets.
In the middle of this rowdy bacchanalia in the fall of 2003, Paul Morris stood at the booth for Treasure Island Media (TIM), the gay porn outfit he founded that features unprotected sex (barebacking) between its actors. This particular specialty was the singular driving force behind his smashingly successful and relatively new company.
Then, like the legend of Lana Turner fortuitously cozying up to the counter at Schwab’s, a beautiful and achingly masculine young man approached the TIM booth. He liked the TIM videos, he liked them very much indeed, and he hoped to one day document a few fantasies of his own. TIM star Jesse O’Toole was on hand and someone snapped a photograph of the two of them together (right). In it, the grinning young man with a leather cap appears to have found his long lost tribe, and O’Toole looks as if he has found a seven-course meal.
The photo was sent to Max Sohl, a sometime porn actor with a theater background whom Morris had commissioned to conceive and direct what would be Sohl’s first porn film. Sohl met with the aspiring model and asked him to complete a form that included a simple question: What is one of your fantasy scenes? In response, the young man wrote simply, “me getting nailed and seeded by a gang of hot guys.”
“The Black Party was coming,” Sohl explained in a recent interview, referring to the annual New York City weekend of leather men, parties and sexual adventures, “and I thought, ‘Okay. Let’s see how many men he can take.’”
And that is how Dawson’s 20 Load Weekend was born
Prior to the onset of AIDS, condom usage in gay pornography was nonexistent – but that was before bodily fluids became synonymous with death and disease. For well over a decade after the crisis began, gay porn videos featured not only tightly wrapped penises, but their storylines – indeed, the actors themselves – suffered from a sort of dramatic malaise, as if sleepwalking through their sexual routine while trying to pay no attention to the man with KS lesions behind the curtain. The videos mirrored our own lack of interest in gallivanting about with the pizza man or diving into an orgy with strangers, with or without condoms. Many viewers simply returned to their stash of pre-AIDS pornography, which was condom-less but “justified.”
As AIDS deaths subsided with the advent of new medications in 1996, gay male culture responded with a vengeance. Circuit parties were born of celebration (before succumbing to their own excesses), safer sex behaviors relaxed, and there was a palpable longing to escape the horrors of the previous years. Reclaiming a bold sexuality – something many gay men believed had been lost forever – was a tonic for the post-traumatic stress they suffered. Younger gay men, who had listened to stories of an earlier, sexually liberated time as if it were a lost era of paleontology, were more than willing to explore whatever modern version might await them.
READ THE REST HERE @ MARK S. KING
Agree. Dawson and his movies are always on the top list of my fav. gay porn movies.
Do we get to see the pills he has to pop to keep healthy?
very hot and sexy and muscular with nice hot sexy cock.
I would love to meet Dawson.
Dawson is one hot mother fucker. I would love to sink my cock into him. Also on the other hand I would love to be laid side by side with him and take cock like he does.
Dawson is a Very Hot Bottom, I have many of his videos, but no Dawson’s 20 Load Weekend is definetly not the most important gay porn film ever.
He is having sex with the other man so they will be naked for long time.
I wouldn’t sat it was the most important film but boy is it HOT!! A fantasy of mine for ages.
Before everyone gets overwrought about the effects barebacking films may have on gay men’s attitudes and practices involving safe sex, it could be argued that film and reality are two different realms, and seldom is the one affected by the other.
Sure, film is entertaining and indulges our need to escape reality. But unless you’re John Hinckley, you’re not likely to have your behavior altered by what you see on the screen.
And just because I have this huge thing for Dario Beck, doesn’t mean I’m ever going to meet — much less fuck — him. (Dario is NOT HIV+, by the way — just using him to illustrate my point re. fantasy and reality.)
HIV+ men have the right to define their reality based on their experiences and desires. They do not have the right, however, to make that decision for others; informed consent is still the safest sex there is.
I applaud “Trunzo’s” comment because for once his response is intelligent, thought-provoking and topical as compared to the usual tripe, superficial crap that members usually post that rarely transcends above their dicks. Bravo to you sir. Yours was the first comment in weeks that I actually enjoyed reading, the rest just makes me feel ashamed and sick to my stomach. Members, get this through your heads!–the model that you want to fuck or blow is someone you will NEVER MEET much less anything else and who, in reality is probably married with two kids who would never acknowledge your existence even if he was paid to do so. In addition, your desire to suck his dick is really something that the rest of us don’t give a shit about!! The difference between reality and fiction is a concept most members really don’t grasp at all….sad, sad, fuckin sad! For once, get your head out of your ass and try and write something that does NOT resemble a comment made by a twelve year old with a learning disability.
Ditto to the last two comments, it isa just a fantasy, doesn’t mean will catch anything through a video. Lighten up guys, and have a Great Imagination.
do the people that make derogaratory comment about others know how they sound??? This is a sex and cruising site and SEX is what it is all about either real or fantasy . SO fuck off with all your P C comments and just chill. BB is cool for those who know and are in consenting relationships AND for a good old fashioned fantasy. Lighten up you upright, politicaly correct queens! LOL,
this is one of my favorite gay porn movies i have jacked off to this so many times
hi i would love to meet up with him he looks fit and fantastic mm
to comments 9 and 10 kodoos for the thought that was put into ur comments!!! i 200% agree with what was sd..and to the individual who gave comment #12 i think u are missing the whole point….but then again most simple minded people would miss the point…go stick a dick in it mate and do what u do best (being a slag):)