Starfuckers is a 2022 drama short film directed by Antonio Marziale. It stars and was written by the director and his co-star, Cole Doman.[1]
Plot
An ostensibly queer up-and-coming actor arrives at a film director's home for an exchange of intimacy. He showers after their encounter is complete and utilizes the privacy of his bathing to sneak a friend, who appears to personally know the film director, in. The friend hands the actor a packet of powder, suggesting intentions to drug the director, and the actor leaves his friend to reconvene with the man for dinner.
The director offers the actor a role in one of his films, and as the actor rehearses a line in attempt to convince him of his worth, the director passes out, likely from the drugs previously displayed in the film.
The actor quickly reunites with his friend in the bathroom, and a brief exchange of words between the two make clear that the director has a history of sexually coercing up-and-coming actors with promises that he will help launch their careers. The actor makes some final touches to his friend's makeup, and the two reappear in the director's living room for a lip-sync performance marked with tensions of the film industry's pedophilic and sexually coercive nature.
Subtext
Starfuckers is in significant conversation with Hollywood's dark history of pedophilia and sexual coercion. Due the great ease with which many celebrities and executives can silence those who come forward about experiences of sexual abuse, it is not often that these perspectives are allowed to come to the forefront.
References
- Rae Alexandra, "It's Not Hard to Connect the Dots in Hollywood's Culture of Abuse," November 7, 2017, https://www.kqed.org/pop/97287/its-not-hard-to-connect-the-dots-in-hollywoods-culture-of-abuse.
- Rosa Escandon, "Sexual Harassment Still Prevalent In Hollywood Even After The #MeToo Movement, Survey Finds," October 28, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/rosaescandon/2020/10/28/new-survey-finds-high-rates-of-sexual-assualt-in-hollywood/?sh=6a3a63813f76.
- Hennekam, Sophia, and Dawn Bennett. "Sexual Harassment in the Creative Industries: Tolerance, Culture and the Need for Change." Gender, Work and Organization 24, no. 4 (2017): 417-434. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12176.
External Links
- Bulleted list item
- ^ "Starfuckers". IMDb. Retrieved 6 March 2024.