Circus of Books 2019
How does a simple, traditional Jewish couple end up becoming the biggest hardcore gay porn distributor in the United States?
This documentary by Rachel Mason gives us an exciting insight into what challenges come with owning multiple famous gay bookstores in Hollywood during the boom of homosexual pornography, while leading a traditional Jewish lifestyle at home with a family.
As a straight person, this documentary was quite eye-opening as to what hardships being homosexual in the '70s and '80s must have brought: The potential family troubles coming out to your parents as gay could cause, for example. You quickly realize that some of these old magazines helped young boys feel like they weren't the only ones out there feeling the way they felt. It wasn't just pornography for the sake of making obscene content; it was a revelation.
But this isn't only a piece to educate the masses about the gay lifestyle. We also get to see the conflict in Karen Mason, the business-minded woman behind the day-to-day operations of the Circus of Books bookshops. You can see that she struggles with living a double life. On one side, the traditional Jewish mother with strong values and, on the other, the owner of multiple very successful gay bookstores. She often seems embarrassed, asking her daughter to stop filming her. It's almost as if she feels like this information shouldn't be made public in fear of her family discovering her dirty little secret.
Karen's partner in crime is Barry Mason, a lovely and cheerful man that you can't stop but want to reach through your screen and hug. Never without a smile, he seems to follow his wife around in running the business and be the yin to her yang, in perfect balance. I finished the documentary with quite some admiration towards him as he appeared to be a levelheaded fellow and a great father to his children.
For a large part of this documentary, it was hard for me to see them as anything but cold business-minded folk, looking for an opportunity to make money. And to be fair, it might have been the case when they first bought Circus of Books. But as the documentary unravels, we see that there are more layers to this couple than meets the eye.
The documentary is well-paced, and time flew by while I watched. Unfortunately, some questions were left unanswered in my opinion and, without spoiling some essential parts of the doc, I could have used a bit more information about some more difficult themes such as Karen's beliefs and how she justifies doing what she does while staying quite involved with her Synagogue.
Nevertheless, the documentary kept me interested, and I enjoyed watching it. I see it as an ode to that era and its colorful people. Some kind of time capsule that transports you back to unconventional days but also reminds you that it's okay to be different.
