





The Meat/Rack
1970, dir. Mike Thomas
“The real story about midnight cowboys!”
Escaping from a tortured small-town upbringing, a young bisexual hustler named J.C. (David Calder) sells his body to whomever is willing to pay—and in his new home of San Francisco, it’s usually men. But when he finally finds himself in a happy (and heterosexual) relationship, will the baggage of his profession cause him to lose everything—and everyone—he holds dear?
Along with James Bidgood’s Pink Narcissus, Mike Thomas’s The Meat/Rack was one of the few high-profile gay softcore sexploitation films to be made during the brief window between the Stonewall Riots in 1969 and the (literal and metaphorical) rise of hardcore gay pornography in 1971. Quite possibly the very first feature-length gay movie to be made in San Francisco, the film features sequences shot in numerous long-gone gay hangouts as well as cameos from legendary queens Charles Pierce, Pat Montclair, and Vicki Marlane.
New 4K restoration by Distribpix and Vinegar Syndrome.
Theatrical Screenings:
Jun 26, 2025 | Frameline Film Festival | San Francisco, CA | tickets |
Distribpix
United States
English
65 minutes
1.33:1
16mm-to-4K DCP