Bangor Films

A documentary about gay male cruising and public sex and how it has changed over the years.

In the 1970s, the golden age of gay pornography in New York City, a promising chorus boy is injured and told he will never dance again. Distraught and unimpressed with the "art" films playing seedy Times Square theaters, he gets his friends and lovers together and they start making their own hardcore movies. Against all odds the films are wildly successful until drugs, AIDS and cheap video technology bring it all crashing down

Todd Verow's experimental narrative feature heralding the end time. Split up into 20 short films, the film explores the fear and longing of several characters as they wait for some unspecified apocalyptic event. Some try to escape physically, emotionally or sexually while others welcome the end with open arms. A woman (PHILLY) is busy dragging her own corpse, trying to find a resting place for it, when she encounters an old lover (MICHAEL BURKE) who used to be a she but has transitioned to a man. He wants to get out of town but she wants to stay it's the end of time when nothing is a crime. Several gay men engage in more and more extreme sexual activity, they want to experience it all before the big collapse. Two gay ex-lovers try to reconnect and feel something, anything but total emptiness. Porn actors and producers make more unsafe films as fantasies grow darker and more violent. Will the world end with a whimper or a bang? Or worse will it not end at all.

Two men embark on an unconventional romance in Todd Verow's sexy Parisian-set drama. Claude finds a young man passed out in the street and, taking pity on him, decides to take him to his apartment to safely sleep. Awakening the next morning, the sexy stranger soon makes a play for his forty-something host, kick-starting a passionate romance. But will the chance meeting develop into more than just lust or will the pair's differences drive them apart? An accomplished, serious and very modern gay romance .

A first person narrative of the exploits of a gay serial killer in deeply disturbing, controversial drama about violence, sexuality, and the imagination. Dennis, the main character, whose lead we follow on this path between what is real and what we can only hope is surreal. His friends attempt to determine if he's truly a psychopath.

Two gay men navigate a burgeoning long distance relationship with the help of video calls.

When 30 something Sean meets Eastern European immigrant Wolf, sparks fly. They return to Sean’s apartment and begin a high energy and hugely sexual affair. What starts as a mere chance meeting slowly evolves into something more. Wolf is easy going, turning tricks to supplement his living, while Sean is needy, talkative and neurotic. Creating a stable relationship is fraught with problems. With Wolf disappearing for hours at a time and Sean doing drugs the two of them seem to be headed down a path of destruction.

SHOW HARD: short films by Charles Lum & Todd Verow Award winning short documentary and narrative films about gay sex and cruising. including: TOM'S GIFT BEEN TOO LONG AT THE FAIR SECRET SANTA SEX PARTY! BLOW JOB 2017 DAVY & GOLIATH I HAVE MIKE PENCE'S DICK IN A PICKLE JAR. WANT TO SEE IT? A NIGHT AT THE HOIST Charles Lum, aka clublum, received his MFA in Photography from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago after 25 years scouting & managing film locations. His short videos have screened internationally in museum, art and film venues. Todd Verow attended the Rhode Island School of Design and the AFI Conservatory. He made his feature film debut with "FRISK" in 1996. (Sundance, Berlin & Toronto.) At Bangor Films, Todd has directed over 25 features and numerous shorts, establishing himself as the most prolific auteur emeritus of the New Queer Cinema. Charles & Todd have also co-directed the feature documentaries “AGE OF CONSENT” and “SEX & The Silver Gays.”

Filmmaker Todd Verow revisits his own youth in this film. The film's main character is Joe, who, like the director, grew up in Bangor in Maine. Joe, an 18 year old high school senior who longs to move away from poor white trash roots and this town, and dreams of attending art school, lives with his single mother and older sister Theresa on a notorious council estate called "Capehart Projects". Molested at the age of ten, Joe nevertheless decides to keep the incident to himself. He befriends an elderly disabled artist named Victor who hires him as houseboy/model. Joe moves in with Victor in his loft above the local opera house, hoping to escape Bangor with his help. He also works part time at a local market along with his sister, who wants to get out of town as much as he does. For most of high school, Joe has also had a crush on his best friend, Andrew, who plays on the high school football team.

Three generations of small town rebel-rebels crash into each other and burn in Todd Verow's new film, A Sudden Loss of Gravity. The small town of Bangor Maine is finally entering the 80's with a pile-up of new wave proportions. Based on true stories of the Northeastern town.

A young married couple living year round on Cape Cod face the winter season uncertain of their future, apart or together.

Serial killer 'NO1KNOWS' managed to elude the police for years. In fact they didn't even know he existed until, by chance, his video and audio recordings were found. By examining the recordings police were able to solve a number of murders around the world - although many men featured in the recordings were never found and it is unclear how many other victims there were since most of the video and audio recordings were destroyed (presumedly by NO1KNOWS himself).

As an older gay man lies dying in a hospital room, he tries to remember all of his past lovers. Over the years, he had filmed many of his lovers as a way to capture them, but now the films are disintegrating – fading away just like his memories. Shot entirely on super8 film, this touching new film incorporates archival footage shot by Charles Lum in the 1970s and '80s (including footage from his time as an exchange student in Norway), archival footage shot by Todd Verow in the 1980s and '90s, as well as new footage by Verow. With a script based on Lum's stories and cruising diaries, and stories written by Verow, Memorabilia is a beautiful visual homage to love, as well as a testament to its creators' close friendship and mutual understanding in how to tell a story. Charles Lum never saw this film come to life, but he would no doubt have been proud of the result.

Did you think that a blowjob in a shower can’t be artsy? Tone down the colors, add some grain, play a voicemail, and you get Call Me –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ a post-porn short film. A young erotomaniac leads a hard life (and not just that)… One satisfied, two more waiting. Oh, the rush of modern times. No wonder people burn out!

A man finds himself homeless after a fight with his significant other.

Sex and drugs-getting hooked and getting off can be addicting. For Drew, eking out a mundane life in Waterville, Maine, it is resisting the illicit pleasure in New York; for Mistress Datina (Philly), it means operating a sex and drug den to cope with her life. In his visually and sexually stimulating film, director Verow introduces multiple characters and overlapping narratives that portray the physical and emotional faces of addiction. For Rob, drugs and sex are means of finding a bed to sleep in every night – while they provide Christian a means of dealing with his helplessness and loss. A writer records these characters and their unforgettable stories. The themes are universal, but the possibilities are endless.

An update on William Friedkin's classic film CRUISING.

A tall and torrid story BUILT FOR ENDURANCE is an experimental short film based on a true story about a violent gay hustler and his so-called girlfriend who attack a man who has been stalking them.

Images from an all-male strip show.

On February 17, 2020, Charles Lum woke up seeing double. A week later his doctor called with news that a “mass” in his brain was HIV related lymphoma. DEATH RACE is a video diary which documents Charles Lum's catastrophic health struggle during the coronavirus crisis.