Every year at the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Erik Schut, Managing Editor of TLA Entertainment Group/ TLA Video, tries to top himself with something outlandish.
He's pretty proud of Chi Chi LaRue's 2002 Master Class, an industry history lesson of the famed director's life and work. "We gave him a big remote and he would point onstage as clips would run," recalls Schut. "Now, most people, especially this generation, watch gay porn at home, maybe with a boyfriend. And getting five hundred boys crammed into a theater… when we got to the Link series from All Worlds, during the chain-in-the-butt scenes and feet-going-up-the-ass scenes, listening to five hundred butch boys turn into screaming queens, it was amazing."
For TLA, which turns 25 on May 16, it was just one of many highlights in a history that has set the standard not only for gay film, but independent film and video.
The Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia was initially the home of an experimental theatre group in the early 1960s. When funds ran low, the founding members of TLA — President and CEO Ray Murray, COO Claire Brown Kohler, CTO Eric Moore, and Senior VP of Marketing and Director of Acquisitions for TLA Releasing Rich Wolff — joined to run the theatre, which was transformed into an art movie house. A fifth partner, Ray's brother Patrick Murray, directs all customer service and warehouse operations. "It's the same core partners," notes Schut. "It's interesting for a lot of people to realize, especially in this day and age with corporate heads changing all the time."
The first TLA Video Store opened in 1985, followed by five more in the Philadelphia and Manhattan areas over the next 12 years, with rentals being the biggest focus. "We realized that a lot of the films that TLA showed, it was really the only place to see them, because most of the films that we played never had a full theatrical run," notes Schut, adding that when the stores opened, adult material was almost instantly a component.
"Falcons, COLTs, that type of stuff mixed in with all the art films. And people would just come in in droves. If you knew about TLA, the theatre or store, you were considered really hip. You could tell that the people there were really into what they did. Even today, while our stores have slipped a bit in rental, it's nowhere near the downward trend that a lot of Blockbuster franchises and stuff like that has. And porn has always been a part of it, especially gay porn."
With a large range of hard-to-find-titles, from foreign to independent gems, combined with its adult film presence, the TLA name instantly became a label of quality. Throw in a ridiculously large mail-order catalog and a successful website that started in 1997, and the company became the main source for gay adult product for a massive amount of customers. (The catalog alone gets sent to some 350,000 people.)
"I think because we treat porn like regular film, it definitely helps to raise the profile of adult filmmaking. We review it, we make suggestions to people about what's really great. If you're a real film snot, you'll find stuff that completely blows you away."
Schut notes that the website was initially considered an extension of the store, but sales picked up instantly. That helped the venture blossom on its own, offering mainstream fare as well as gay and lesbian product (both general and adult). The site grew popular for its reviews, which didn't pull punches, of adult videos. TLA also joined with large studios like Falcon and Titan to offer special edition DVDs, some with more extreme content (like fisting and watersports) only available on the website.
TLAOnDemand was launched last April (a non-adult on-demand service could come sometime this year), and the company's straight adult business has also exploded. TLARaw.com — which concentrates on mainstream Hollywood films with skin and straight adult films — has been "monstrously successful." In addition, TLAMovies.com (the TLA database stripped of all adult and gay components) has also launched.
Then there's TLA Releasing, started in 2001 after Ray Murray realized that the independent gay market was underserved. That's when the Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival was born; it's now the third largest of its kind in the country. It's presented by the Philadelphia Film Society, which TLA founded. They were responsible for gathering the biggest names in gay XXX for a director's summit a few years ago: Jerry Douglas, Chi Chi LaRue, Joe Gage, John Rutherford, Steven Scarborough, Bruce Cam, Michael Lucas. "That was definitely one of the highlights in the history of the gay festival. We got coverage in mainstream magazines, not just gay magazines. It was amazing," says Schut.
"TLA Releasing kind of germinated out of the festivals and, little by little, more and more directors came and we started doing acquisitions," he adds. "And we've had some pretty major movies. We had Latter Days in theaters, which almost grossed a million dollars, which for an independent gay film in this day and age — with online delivery and everything else — was great." TLA Releasing will release about 75 films this year including the just out Adam & Steve and the upcoming Another Gay Movie.
In addition, it formed two separate companies in the adult space: Mercury Releasing, home to The Wakefield Poole Collection (Part 2 is on the way) and Tom Bianchi's On the Couch and Jackrabbit Releasing. There is even a United Kingdom division, which opened last year.
"The fact that we're celebrating twenty-five years is just so cool," says Schut. "We're doing a massive launch — we have a special logo that will be publicly seen soon, it's this huge initiative. We have some major stuff planned for this year as thank-yous to the public and customers."
Contact Info: (215) 733-0608; TLAVideo.com; TLAReleasing.com.
