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. It appears to be an issue that many child actors face but cannot expose due to power and financial advantages possessed by celebrities and executive filmmakers.[2] Former child star Corey Feldman, most famously known for his roles in Stand By Me, Gremlins, and The Lost Boys, is one of few celebrities who has come forward to address the issue. Feldman states, in a 2020 interview with The Guardian, that pedophilia is Hollywood's biggest problem and explains, in another interview with The Hollywood Reporter, that he, a victim of the proclivity for pedophilia within the American film industry, would be the one to face legal problems were he to explicitly name the figures who are committing these acts against young child stars.[3][4] His commentary works to corroborate the tone of Starfuckers' final scene and the allusion it makes to the silencing of victims that takes place within Hollywood.
Production
The film was directed by Antonio Marziale and written by both Marziale and his co-star, Cole Doman. It was produced by the creative production company Field Trip Media and shot in
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.
- ^ "Starfuckers". IMDb. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
- ^ Victor, Daniel (24 May 2016). "Elijah Wood Clarifies Comments on Hollywood Pedophilia". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ Freeman, Hadley (6 February 2020). "Corey Feldman: 'The biggest problem in Hollywood is paedophilia'". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ Abramovitch, Seth (25 May 2016). "Corey Feldman on Elijah Wood Hollywood Pedophilia Controversy: "I Would Love to Name Names"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 14 April 2024.