Circus of Books

4.0

Synopsis:

For over 35 years, the gay porn shop Circus of Books gave Los Angeles’ LGBT+ community a space to socialize and celebrate themselves without judgment. Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Circus of Books is the debut documentary from artist Rachel Mason, who finally asks the least radical people she knows- her parents- how they became American’s biggest distributors of gay porn.

Quick Thoughts:

There are so many incredible parts to be discovered within “Circus of Books”, a documentary that tells an almost unbelievable story of Barry and Karen Mason, as told through the lens of their daughter, Rachel Mason. Given that “Circus of Books” is a documentary and not the usual fictional story, I won’t recap a full synopsis. Because this IS Queer history, I feel that it’s better to watch the documentary for yourself. No amount of words or descriptions could relay the vast amount of vintage footage, photos, personal accounts of events, and everything else that piece together to tell the story of “Circus of Books”. It’s an important documentary that even I did not know I needed to watch until afterwards. In short – watch this on Netflix before it leaves!