Hooked

Tod Ahlberg

Babalupictures

Eclectic DVD (US Release)

Hooked is a documentary film exploring the “online cruising” phenomenon through the stories and reflections of gay men from around the country. It seeks to understand not only the culture of internet sex but the emotional and psychological motivations and ramifications of this new emerging sub culture.

Within the gay culture, online cruising - going online to meet other men to arrange an immediate sexual encounter - is rapidly emerging as a prime pastime, it seems that as our culture superficially returns to a more conservative orientation then gay men are once again seeking a more underground way to express their sexuality. Unlike the gay heyday of the late sixties and seventies, sex is no longer a radical statement but more of an escape from the intimacies and demands of everyday life.

Sad to say, many gay men crushed by the ongoing prejudice of our culture find the anonymity of online cruising sex a way to bypass intimacy and closeness. Since sex is so easy, true intimacy is lost and a decline into desensitization and sex addiction occurs.

In many ways this is a very unusual tale. Too often the issues surrounding “online cruising” are seen in black and white terms. The anti gay lobby decries the ease with which sex is available and the gay community, rightly in response, demands its right to whatever form of sexual expression it wishes. However, beyond these simple dichotomies are the reality of loneliness, sex addiction and the loss of intimacy.

In the summer of 2001,Tod Ahlberg began seeking interviewees for the documentary. Advertising via gay-oriented cruising chat rooms on the Internet, he put out the word that he was looking for participants. Within two weeks he had received over 1,200 responses. Eventually, these were paired down to a few dozen men, which ultimately led to Internet-based interviews (via NetMeeting) and an 11,000 mile road trek around the country for in-person interviews.

The power of this film is it honesty, it explores all aspects of “online cruising” without value judgments. It considers the freedom which online communication can give and indeed the lifeline it can offer to those in isolated locations. At the same time it is willing to discuss the darker side of such freedom include sex addiction, risks, desensitization and loss of intimacy. There is no final answer, no easy solution, we are not offered a blanket judgment on the joys or dangers of the internet, more a realistic exploration of the risks and benefits of the way the internet has come to be used by a large segment of the gay community.

Hooked stands outside many current gay documentaries, rather than offering a polemical or political view, it allows gay men themselves to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of online sex, their experiences, successes, failures, loves and fears. There is a deep sense of reflection in these interviews which allows us to consider our own motives and experiences in a way that many gay documentaries do not. This is a bluntly honest program which is of significant importance to the gay community at large.

While certainly we are at risk from the conservatives and puritans, perhaps a greater danger is the way in which we have allowed ourselves to become distant from intimacy and addicted to sex as a reaction to our collective suffering and angst.

There is a lot here to contemplate.