BERLIN — Young filmmakers Thomas Krauslach and Steffen Krueger aren’t cutting euphemistic corners in their pending documentary about gay porn star Fostter Riviera, bluntly framing his story with the question, “What remains, if your dick rules your life?”
Currently crowdfunding on Indiegogo, “21x7 - The Public Privacy of Fostter Riviera” plans to follow 24-year-old Riviera (real name Sydney Fernandes) for a full year as he tries to hack out an existence in the civilian world after four decadent years in the porn world.
“Four years of unrestrained excess have not passed by without damages,” Krauslach and Krueger write on the campaign page. “While Fostter took all the applauses, Sydney suffered from a lack of real care and closeness to his beloved ones. To change that he decides to get away from porn and from his shadow Fostter, he decided to build a private little life with a boyfriend and a house.”
The filmmakers believe that Fernandes is a symbol for our age. Earning a Multimedia Product Developer degree in his native Portugal, Fernandes left his home country to escape the financial crisis and relocated to Germany to pursue stardom as a hardcore performer. 21x7 (cm) refers to his genital measurements, which have in some ways defined his career.
In a clip posted on the film’s Indiegogo page, Fernandes describes how his mother found out about his profession — by opening a magazine and seeing and interview with him, titled “From {Portuguese city] Porto to Porno.” It then cuts to a shot of him injecting his own penis, presumably with a ED drug to expedite an erection for a shoot. He also admits that he has dabbled in Crystal Meth and other risky behaviors. “My dream was being a porn star,” Fernandes said. “Since I’m a porn star, my dream is being a guy that has a boyfriend and a house.”
The campaign is aiming to raise €12,500, to, in addition to following Fernandes' daily activities, travel with him to Portugal to visit his mother. The filmmakers write, “The documentary is going to follow Sydney for a very long period and it is [not] possible to foresee every event and happening we are going to shoot. We need to [be] flexible and mobile to get a portrait which is as complex and interesting as possible.”
The campaign will run for 37 more days. Contributors can earn perks like autographed posters, postcards, DVDs, an onscreen appearance in the film and/or dinner with Fernandes.
For more info, or to make a contribution, click here.
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