Ask Any Buddy w/ Director Liz Purchell

dir. Elizabeth Purchell // 2019 // 1 hr 18 mins

Long before films like LOVE, SIMON and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME became common fare at the multiplex, the only places gay men could see their lives and lusts depicted on screen with any degree of honesty was at their local all-male adult cinema. From coming out stories to romances, melodramas to camp comedies, the hundreds of films churned out by the gay adult film industry throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s were a driving force behind the spread of gay culture and constitute a largely forgotten cinematic document of the era — films that were often shot in actual queer spaces, starred the people who frequented them, and then played back in movie theaters that doubled as safe communal spaces for members of the community.

We're proud to finnally bring this kaleidascopic vision of queer life to KC for the first time AND to host filmmaker and historian Elizabeth Purchell for a Q&A after the film.

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Elizabeth Purchell is a Brooklyn-based queer film historian, programmer, filmmaker, and the founder of Muscle Distribution.

She programs and hosts the monthly Queer Cinema: Lost and Found screening series at Austin Film Society and the weekly Weird Wednesday series at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn. She also co-programs and hosts the monthly queer film series and podcast Cruising the Movies at IFC Center. She was also on the programming team for the 2024 and 2025 iterations of Frameline.

Her work has been shown at over two dozen international film festivals including BFI Flare, Frameline, and Outfest, as well as at venues like Anthology Film Archives, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Hammer Museum.

Host or Publisher Stray Cat Film Center