TLA Entertainment Group is a privately held corporation based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1981.
Originally formed to operate a repertory movie theater, the company subsequently moved into catalog and online sales, retail stores, film festivals and film distribution. The catalog began as a pornographic mail order business and grew to include also gay and lesbian non-pornographic films and books and mainstream films. [1]
TLA stands for Theatre of the Living Arts. Now a concert venue, it was founded as an experimental theater group in the 1960s [1] under the direction of Andre Gregory (of My Dinner with Andre fame). The group included Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch, Sally Kirkland and Ron Leibman who performed exclusively in the Theater of the Living Arts on South Street in Philadelphia. [2] By the mid- to late-60s, funding for the Theater was running out and the theater was converted to a movie house showing an eclectic mix of classic and foreign films.
In 1981, the founding partners of TLA Entertainment Group (Raymond Murray, Claire Brown-Kohler, Alex Roberts and Roman Czenchtuch) met and subsequently ran the theater. For the next six years the TLA was a repertory art movie theater. In addition, for four of those six years, the partners ran a small, first-run art house, the Roxy Screening Room, also located in Center City Philadelphia. [2]
The Theater of the Living Arts is no longer affiliated with TLA Entertainment Group.
On January 30, 2014 Sterling Genesis International of New York City acquired the company. G. Sterling Zinsmeyer became chairman of the group. [3]
In 2015 the company launched the Dekkoo video streaming service. [4]
In 1985, the first video store was opened next door to Theater of the Living Arts. The stores expanded into a chain, and by 2005 there were four stores in Philadelphia and one in New York. (The NYC store was in a building previously occupied by the 8th St. Playhouse.) Starting in 2007, the stores began closing, with the New York store closing first, followed by the Chestnut Hill and Society Hill locations in 2009, [5] and the Rittenhouse Square location in 2011. The final store, TLA Bryn Mawr remained open until October 2012. [6]
TLA Entertainment Group launched the TLAvideo website in 1997. The site sells gay and lesbian, American independent, international, Hollywood and pornographic DVDs and books.
In 1994, TLA Entertainment Group President Raymond Murray started the Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
In 2001, TLA Entertainment Group assumed management of the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, now called The Philadelphia Film Festival. The two-week festival shows over 100 feature films from around the world. In order to better fund these events, in August 2001 TLA Entertainment Group spun them off and created the non-profit Philadelphia Film Society.
TLA Releasing is the licensing division of TLA Entertainment. It is focused on the acquisition of distribution rights of international, independent, and gay and lesbian films to theaters and on DVD and VHS. TLA Releasing releases two films a month for the home entertainment market. The catalog of films is available online.
TLA Entertainment Group has published two books:
Zak Spears, is an American gay pornographic film actor. Spears appeared in the feature film The Doom Generation (1995) using his real name, Khristofor Rossianov.
Latter Days is a 2003 American romantic comedy-drama film about a gay relationship between a closeted Mormon missionary and his openly gay neighbor. The film was written and directed by C. Jay Cox and stars Steve Sandvoss as the missionary, Aaron, and Wes Ramsey as the neighbor, Christian. Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears as Elder Ryder, and Rebekah Johnson as Julie Taylor. Mary Kay Place, Khary Payton, Erik Palladino, Amber Benson, and Jacqueline Bisset have supporting roles.
The Theatre of Living Arts is a concert venue located on South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The venue, which opened in 1988, dates back to the early 1900s as a nickelodeon. Over the years, the venue has seen many incarnations ranging from concert hall to movie theatre to theatre. Known for its acoustics, it was voted as one of the best concert venues in America by Complex.
Philadelphia QFest was founded in Philadelphia as the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival by TLA Entertainment Group in 1995. It was given its current name, QFest, in 2009. One of the festival's founders and current Artistic Director, Raymond Murray, describes QFest's mission as giving gay and lesbian audiences the opportunity to see films that accurately reflect their life experiences without the filter of the "straight" Hollywood system.
Falcon Entertainment, a United States company based in San Francisco, California, is one of the world's largest producers of gay pornography.
Titan Media is a San Francisco-based gay pornographic studio founded by director and cinematographer Bruce Cam and Robert Kirsch (1961-2001) in 1995.
An adult movie theatre is a euphemistic term for a movie theatre dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films.
Quenton Allan Brocka is an American television and film director based in West Hollywood, California. He has directed and written a number of feature films while creating an animated television series for the Logo cable network. He also writes a column for The Advocate.
TLA Releasing is a US film distribution and production company owned by TLA Entertainment Group. In March 2011, a new LLC was formed for the operation. Its primary output is LGBT-related films from all over the world under the "TLA Releasing" label, as well as horror films under the label "Danger After Dark". Since 2000, they have released over 200 films on DVD and various VOD platforms.
Tweeter, formerly Tweeter Etc. and Tweeter Home Entertainment, was a specialty consumer electronics retailer providing mid and high end electronic equipment, including flat panel TVs, plasma TVs, car radios, home theater systems, GPSs and more. It also focused much of its business on custom installation of electronics for homes and automobiles.
Kansas City Trucking Co. is a 1976 American gay pornographic film directed by Tim Kincaid, better known as Joe Gage. It is the first in what has come to be known as Gage's "Working Man Trilogy", continuing with 1978's El Paso Wrecking Corp. and concluding with 1979's L.A. Tool & Die, and stars Richard Locke, Steve Boyd and Jack Wrangler.
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; it at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornography for heterosexual female and homosexual male consumption.
Tom DeSimone is an American director, writer, producer and editor, perhaps best known for directing the cult films Chatterbox (1977), Hell Night (1981), and The Concrete Jungle (1982).
That Man: Peter Berlin is a 2005 documentary about the popular gay icon Peter Berlin directed by Jim Tushinski. The documentary had its world premiere at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival.
Inch by Inch is a 1985 gay pornographic film, directed, written, and produced by Matt Sterling, cinematographed by Nick Eliot and Doug Williams, edited by Paul James, and starring Jeff Quinn, Doug Jensen and Tom Brock with Mark Miller, Jim Pulver, Mike Raymond, Steve Wright, Tony Stefano, Steve Henson, Toby Matson, Christopher Lance, Kevin Luken and Bill Joseph. The runtime is 64 minutes, and DVD copies have been distributed by the Falcon Studios. The film contains sequences in the order of appearance: a man seducing each of two trespassers in his apartment, a foursome on the rooftop, a threesome fantasy, a window voyeurism, and the subway scene.
Silence = Death is a 1990 documentary film directed, written, and produced by Rosa von Praunheim. The film centers on the responses of New York City artists to the AIDS epidemic. Those interviewed include East Village artist David Wojnarowicz, poet Allen Ginsberg, graffiti artist Keith Haring, Peter Kunz, Bern Boyle, and many others. It is the first installment of von Praunheim and Phil Zwickler's trilogy about AIDS and activism, later followed by Positive. The film was awarded the Queer-Film-Prize of the Berlinale.
Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts is a 1979 German documentary film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. The film, mainly shot in San Francisco, chronicles the rise of gay activism in the United States between 1972 and 1978 in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots and before the arrival of the AIDS epidemic. It explores, among other themes, the initial unity formed post-Stonewall era, splintered into numerous factions. The American gay liberation movement, strengthened by the assault of the Anita Bryant-led anti-gay initiatives, appears foundering into polarization and self-interest groups in an increasingly fractured leadership. The film discusses whether overt sexual expression and promiscuity were helping or hurting the cause of gay rights.
Horror Vacui (German: Horror Vacui - Die Angst vor der Leere) is a 1984 German film directed by Rosa von Praunheim. Shot in a neo-expressionist style, the film is a satire on cults of any kind. The plot follows Frankie and Hannes, a young gay couple living in Berlin. One is studying art and the other medicine. Their happy life is disrupted when Frankie attends a lecture and quickly becomes involved in a sinister cult operating as a self-help group called "Optimal Optimism". 'Madame C', a former Nazi party member, is the leader of 'Optimal Optimism'. When the cult members discovers that Frankie is gay, he is repeatedly raped by both men and women of the group. Hannes must find a way to rescue him.
The Other Side of Aspen is a 1978 American gay pornographic film. It is produced by Falcon Studios, directed by Matt Sterling, and stars Casey Donovan, Al Parker, and Dick Fisk. The film consists of sex scenes filmed in Lake Tahoe, California, interspersed with dialogue scenes shot in San Francisco. The Other Side of Aspen was Falcon's first feature-length release, and is noted as one of the first adult films to be published on videocassette.
Biello & Martin are a songwriting duo working in dance, theatre, and film. Independently, Michael Biello is a lyricist, performance artist, and ceramic sculptor. Dan Martin is a composer and music producer. They are best known for creating performance works which promote love, spirituality, and self-expression through a Queer lens. As LGBTQ+ cultural activists, they also founded Outmusic, an LGBTQ+ music organization, and have been romantic life-partners for over 40 years.