SAN FRANCISCO - Four gay content producers are protesting the recent David Awards, saying the quality of the winning work was sub-standard, voting hinged on support for the magazine that sponsored the awards, and too much bareback content was recognized.
The David Awards were presented during a gala ceremony on Friday in Berlin. They are sponsored by GAYeLINE magazine.
Although he was unable to attend the awards show in person due to sudden illness, GAYVN Hall of Fame Director and Titan Media founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Cam on Friday refused via proxy to accept the David Lifetime Achievement Award.
"I cannot in good conscience accept a lifetime achievement award from an organization that glorifies and promotes bareback content alongside my own," Cam said Tuesday. "I have worked my entire adult-industry career to promote and eroticize safer sex content in all of my films. It would be against every single fiber of my moral being to accept this award.
"Silence is acceptance, and I can no longer sit by and watch the industry where I have worked and helped shape be destroyed by others seeking financial gain at the expense of performers and the entire gay community," he continued. "I cannot and will not accept this award, as it is tainted with the blood of others."
In 2006, the first year for the David Awards, TitanMen won the award for Best American Studio. In addition, TitanMen exclusive models François Sagat and Spencer Quest were awarded Best European Actor and Best Non-European Actor, respectively. At that time, bareback films were excluded from consideration, citing the same standards employed by the GAYVN awards.
"It appears that this year's list of nominees were kept from Titan Media and other nominated studios in an apparent attempt to conceal the amount of bareback films and studios being nominated," a Titan Media press release distributed Tuesday noted. "Had Titan Media been informed of the fact that the vast majority of the nominees were bareback, we would not have supported or attended the event."
Titan Media Vice President Keith Webb attended the David Awards show and declined to accept the award on behalf of his business partner Cam. On Tuesday, he said, "We were truly shocked and appalled by the overwhelming amount of low-end and poorly produced bareback films being honored at the awards. When it became known to the producers of the awards show that I was going to refuse the award on Bruce's behalf, the award was pulled and I was refused access to the stage. They did not even have the decency to allow me on stage to voice our opinions and to politely refuse to accept the award on Bruce's behalf.
"In my opinion, the entire event was a set-up meant to showcase and promote bareback films, and [it] was the most biased and poorly produced awards show I have ever attended," Webb continued. "The event was an embarrassment to the entire gay adult industry, and I am sad to say we were even represented [there]."
Webb and Cam were not alone in their disappointment. At least three other companies in the gay adult entertainment industry voiced displeasure as well.
"I was really disappointed that the David Awards seem to have taken the focus off good filmmaking and quality movies in many of the categories and turned to honoring and promoting all things bareback," said director Chi Chi LaRue, who received the 2007 David Award for Best U.S. Director. LaRue's Channel 1 Releasing also received an award for Best U.S. Cover for the film In His Dreams.
Representatives of one European company said it rejected its David Award because it felt the judging involved unfair criteria.
"We received an award of Best Actor Europe, which was totally unfair," said Chief Executive Officer Thomas Virsov and Prodcer Ulrich Jung of XXX-Project Germany. "We got the award because we paid to sponsor the show, and other awards were given to companies which paid for adverts in the GAYeLINE magazine. We tried to communicate this while we were at the stage, but they took away our microphone.
"We gave back our award and didn't take it," the pair continued. "We are more than happy that also Titan refused to accept their award."
Lucas Entertainment founder, producer, and director Michael Lucas said he also had reason to believe the awards judges may have been biased.
"First, I want to say that I applaud Titan Media for their decision," Lucas told GAYVN. "Secondly, about the so-called David Awards, they asked us point blank if we were going to be sponsoring the show and said point blank that only under the circumstances of giving them money were we going to get an award. We ignored their e-mails."
GayVN
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