SAN FRANCISCO—The long-unavailable gay adult drama Passing Strangers (1974) from Arthur J. Bressan, Jr. has been digitally restored in a new 2K scan, and can now be seen on PinkLabel.tv.
According to a plot synopsis provided by the company, Robert Adams stars as an 18-year-old high school senior who is the object of affection of the film’s 28-year old protagonist Tom (Robert Carnagey). When Robert responds to his personal ad in the gay paper, Tom finds himself falling in love—an elemental gay movie plot.
The company notes that the film features an early gay political sensibility, and reflects the newfound activist freedom of the early post-Stonewall years, as well as footage of San Francisco’s first official Gay Freedom Day celebration in 1972.
Passing Strangers played at both gay film festivals and gay adult cinemas in 1974 and it won first prize at the San Francisco Erotic Film Festival. Young star Adams would go on to co-star in Bressan’s second gay adult feature, Forbidden Letters.
Of its original release, Gay Sunshine film critic Lee Atwell hailed Passing Strangers as a landmark and called it “the very finest personal and artistic success in the history of gay erotic cinema.”
In a recent appreciation of the film for Paste magazine, queer adult film archivist Evan Purchell stated, “Passing Strangers is many things—a loving portrait of hippie-era San Francisco, a romance, a porno movie—but at its core, it’s a coming out story, not just for its 18-year-old protagonist, but for the emerging queer community itself.”
The newly restored Passing Strangers may now be streamed on-demand or included in the PinkLabel.tv PLUS membership. Also look for the digital premiere of Arthur J. Bressan, Jr.’s Forbidden Letters (1979) releasing exclusively on PinkLabel.tv in August 2020.
Those interested may watch Passing Strangers here.
Fans may follow PinkLabel.tv on Twitter @PinkLabelTV and The Bressan Project @BressanProject.
