

Tearoom
Tearoom consists of footage shot by the police in the course of a crackdown on public sex in the American Midwest. In the summer of 1962, the Mansfield, Ohio Police Department photographed men in a restroom under the main square of the city. The cameramen hid in a closet and watched the clandestine activities through a two-way mirror. The film they shot was used in court as evidence against the defendants, all of whom were found guilty of sodomy, which at that time carried a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in the state penitentiary. The original surveillance footage shot by the police came into the possession of director William E. Jones while he was researching this case for a documentary project. The unedited scenes of ordinary men of various races and classes meeting to have sex were so powerful that the director decided to present the footage with a minimum of intervention.
0More Like This

This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous
2017

The Circle
2014

Boys on Film 23: Dangerous to Know
2023

Codebreaker Alan Turing Persecution Of A Genius
2014

Queer Japan
2020

The Legend in Me
2024

Race d'Ep!
1979

Muxes
2016

Passing
2015

Battle of Soho
2017

No Gay Men in Zimbabwe
2021

Twisted Sex
1971

I'm a Porn Star: Gay 4 Pay
2016

Jordy's 65 Reasons to Live
2021

Coming to You
2021

Country Queer
2026

Secrets of the Gay Sauna
2016
Break Out

The Dream Machine
1986

Outrage
2009