“Could it happen here?”

That’s what Sam Benger wondered as he reviews Folsom Forever, the documentary film of the thirty year history of the world’s largest festival of leather and kink in San Francisco, at the World Premiere in London.

It was a new type of event to get kitted-up for - a film premiere. Leathered and booted, two of the LeatherWest team sped down the M4 in order to accept an invitation to Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios for the World Premiere of Folsom Forever, a new documentary film of the world renowned San Francisco’s Folsom Street Fair.

 

All week, attendees had been encouraged to “dress up for the occasion” by the sponsors Recon.com. From what we saw in the packed art-house complex that is Riverside Studios, the call did not go unanswered. The cinema was full - the creak of leather more than evident. Many familiar faces recently from London and beyond seen in Bristol were milling around which allowed us to catch up. There was a definite sense of leathermen coming together to celebrate their community.

 

Film documentaries and investigative journalism are well founded in the UK. It’s a hallmark of the world standard that is set by television producers in the UK. Bristol itself has the world wide reputation via the BBC’s Natural History. The film Folsom Forever contains many interviews of organisers and participants past and present, broken up with a little archive footage.

The film is not a documentary film in that classic documentary style we are more familiar with in Britain. So, it took some getting used to not having a narrator’s voice-over. There was no discernible thread that tied aspects of the story of the past 30 years together. Sometimes, just momentarily, the film leaves you behind and you can feel a little lost by the lack of a coherent narrative. I noticed one or two moments of restlessness amongst the leathered audience - made even more noticeable by the creek of leather in the darkness. As an audience we were made to concentrate hard. The film jumped around a little too often for my tastes. However, this the American style of documentary. It did give the audience a fair sense of Folsom, its culture and history albeit in a slightly disjointed fashion.

I guess the vast majority of people, our reference point for Folsom is Berlin, just that ‘San Fran’ would be a little bit bigger. Nothing could be further form the truth. Folsom San Francisco is a vast affair. It’s open to all. It threads its way through the “South of Market San Fran” (SOMA) in broad daylight, spread over “sixteen city blocks”.

It’s a veritable outdoor festival of everything that is kink. It’s straight kink, gay kink, bi-kink, metrosexual kink. It’s every shade of sexual deviance from getting whipped at the roadside workshop to the ‘naked crowd’ protesting for the right to be naked in a public arena without penalty, supported by ‘side walk’ demonstrations of twisted fun and Indi bands rocking the joint.

I had heard from Americans in chats in leather bars across Europe, a certain disdain for Folsom ‘San Fran’. From, “it’s a bit of a freak show”, to the complaint that the street fair is attended by “moms and dads with strollers”. Obviously, there’s something radically different here from the European model, but I still didn’t really know what they meant. This film has now shown me that difference.

Folsom Forever covers the 30 years of the world’s biggest and most comprehensive celebration of kink.

The film accurately displays what Folsom San Francisco is all about and what it celebrates. It’s not a ‘fest’ that is dominated by the leather community like its European counterpart. It is worth noting however, that the leather community in San Francisco didn’t embrace and develop the Folsom Street Fair until a few years after it started. However, it’s clear: the event couldn’t have survived through to today without the leather community’s support.

Watching the film, I was searching for the leather guys and kept thinking “Where were they?” They could be seen here and there in some scenes in the film, but not in the mass leather fest that is Folsom Europe in Berlin. That was a surprise as was the limited range of leather styles and looks on display. In fact there was more leather and variety of leather on display in the audience than there was in the film.

Those who’ve been to Berlin know the European event - it’s a vast range of every conceivable dress and style of leather you could imagine. Not so ‘San Fran’. Chaps, jocks and harness dominate. The proud leather uniform style of guy was not really that evident.

This got me thinking. Obviously, I was left wanting to know why, but this film wasn’t going to answer those questions which stem from my ‘European’ viewpoint and bias. In fact I am not sure if the film intended to answer any questions, merely to show us a series of scenes which reflect the event and its people.

Is this a good film? Yes. It explains and shows the cultural difference that exists with our “cousins across the Atlantic”. It is a film that will be of interest to gay leathermen wanting to understand more about their culture and that of our American cousins. It’s clear we’re not just separated by a common language. It’ s informative - it tells you something more about San Francisco without concentrating on the AIDS crisis years, with films such as The Band Played On do.

The ‘American Pioneer’ spirit that is on display throughout the film. It’s talked about so ordinarily by the people interviewed. They seemed to just get on with it. Whereas here in the UK, we’re used to getting things provided via taxes. We don’t have the culture of self support on the scale Americans have always done. It’s always largely been done for us.

It’s an American take and style on an American event. We Europeans, used to the defined ‘Leather Pride’ style of event, need to be acclimatised to the Californian way of doing things. In that respect, Folsom Forever delivers.

Postscript

It would be remiss of me not to mention the social side to the event. Afterwards the bar was packed with leather men. Many faces were familiar. Quite a few had made the trip to Bristol for BLUF events and were keen to make the journey again. Several people asked about the next leather market. Double take: leather men in London wanting to come to the next market with gear to sell and with a mind to buy? From London - the world capital!?

London guys were impressed that we’d come down from Bristol. They were a bit taken back we had arrived only to return in one evening. Of course, they was the usual ribbing from the ‘hardcore Bristol’ lot on Londoners: “yes, we realise that a trip to Hammersmith, on the borders of zone 3 (horror!), is a bit of a trek for you and a little daunting”.

We caught up with the team from Recon and tracked down the infamous ‘Recon Tweeter’. The Recon boys said they liked the new LeatherWest site, that what we’re doing is impressive and “nobody else is doing what you do”.

That was a nice and surprising validation. After some talk there was agreement that we “could do something together”. Both teams need to have a think about that. Bristol’s name in the leather world is making its mark, it’s reputation continues to grow.

We drove back from London along a very quiet M4 getting home in record time, with a sense that we’ve come a long way in try to build a better, stronger future for leathermen. But with have a lot more work to do in the future. Then I had a thought: “Could Bristol one day host a British version of Folsom?”.

Notes:

  • Folsom Street Fair is a registered trademark of Folsom Street Events, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, based in San Francisco.
  • The views represented here are personal to the author and should not be taken as representative of LeatherWest or LW Events Community Interest Company Ltd.

Links:

 

Related posts:

Happy Tom of Finland Stamp Day!