Virtual Conversation: Circus of Books

Rachel Mason’s Circus of Books
Virtual Conversation: Sunday, May 24, 2020
4:00pm PST | 7:00pm EST

View a recording of this conversation online.

A livestream conversation about Rachel Mason’s 2019 documentary Circus of Books about Los Angeles’ renown mom and pop hardcore gay porn shop.  The conversation will include filmmaker Rachel Mason, Producer/Editor Kathryn Robson, Producer Cynthia Childs, and Executive Producer Rhianon Jones moderated by Frieze Senior Editor Evan Moffitt.

For over 35 years, the gay porn shop, Circus of Books, served as the epicenter for LGBT life and culture in Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to many in the community it served, the store was cultivated and cared for by its owners, Karen and Barry Mason; a straight couple with three children. Circus of Books is an intimate portrait of the Masons and their journey to become one of the biggest distributors of hardcore gay porn in the United States. Their story unfolds through the lens of their daughter, filmmaker and artist, Rachel Mason.

We hope you can watch the full documentary prior to the conversation on Netflix.

Cynthia Childs is a non-fiction producer and showrunner working in Los Angeles. Her latest feature documentary, Circus of Books,premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and was released by Netflix. Past projects include the award-winning documentary A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square which screened internationally and aired in the U.S. and Canada. Cynthia has executive produced several groundbreaking series including Time of Death (Showtime) and The Real L Word (Showtime), the former of which was awarded the 2014 International Documentary Association Award for Best Limited Series and named a top ten TV series by Time Magazine, Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly. As the showrunner for the Viceland series Kentucky Ayahuasca, Cynthia explored the potential of a nonconventional medicine to provide healing for intense personal trauma. Her current TV project revisits the 2005 trial and subsequent acquittal of Michael Jackson on child molestation charges. Directed by Stephanie Soechtig, this limited series will premiere in the summer of 2020 on A&E.

Rhianon Jones is a writer, director and producer living between Los Angeles and upstate New York. She attended Vassar and Reed colleges, where she studied film theory before going on to earn a Masters in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. Her feature film, Wonder Valley, premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival in 2017, and she recently executive produced Rachel Mason’s documentary, Circus of Books, which was acquired for Netflix by Ryan Murphy (Glee, Feud, American Horror Story). She is the founder of Neon Heart Productions, an independent  film production company for female filmmakers. NHP films include the award-winning film Once Upon a River, by Haroula Rose, and Emma Seligman’s feature comedy Shiva Baby, which was an official selection at SXSW in 2020. Upcoming projects include an untitled Indigo Girls documentary by award-winning filmmaker Alexandria Bombach (On Her Shoulders), an arthouse documentary about drug addiction in Ethiopia, directed by Jessica Beshir (“Hairat”), and Highway One by writer/director Jaclyn Bethany. She is also in post-production on her own feature,Gayo Dallas, a documentary following a group die-hard of Latina K Pop fans living in Dallas, Texas. Rhianon recently joined the Leadership Council for women at Sundance.

Rachel Mason is a Los Angeles-based multi-media artist, director, and musician. Mason’s work has appeared at museums and galleries internationally. Her first feature film, THE LIVES OF HAMILTON FISH, was a historical fantasy that toured as a live performed concert.  Mason most recently directed the Netflix Original Documentary CIRCUS OF BOOKS, Executive Produced by Ryan Murphy. The film details her own biographical story, growing up the child of pornographers at the center of the gay community. She wrote and recorded the film’s end credit song, “Give You Everything.” In 2019, Rachel Mason was featured as one of Indiewire’s “25 LGBTQ Filmmakers on the Rise.”

Evan Moffitt is a writer and critic based in New York. He is Senior Editor of frieze. His work has been featured in various other publications, including Aperture, Apollo, Art in America, BOMB, The Brooklyn Rail, Flash Art, PIN-UP, Transition Magazine, The White Review, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, where he previously served as Assistant Editor. He has contributed to catalogues on artists such as Hélio Oiticica, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Barbara Wagner and Benjamin De Burca, and spoken at numerous institutions, such as Centre Pompidou, Pinacoteca de São Paulo, ICA LA, ICA Miami, the Hammer Museum, the International Center for Photography, New York University and the University of California Los Angeles.

Kathryn Robson is a producer, editor, writer, and researcher based out of Los Angeles and Toronto. She began her career in documentary at CBC Radio, before moving to Los Angeles to work with the producing and financing company Bow & Arrow Entertainment, where she honed her knowledge of independent film.  In 2012, she was awarded Canada’s prestigious SSHRC research grant for her documentary, Female POV: The Hetero Female Use of Online Porn, an examination of the relationship between heterosexual women and pornography in the digital era.  With an academic background in cultural studies, Kathryn aims to engage audiences by blending political and social analysis with captivating and subversive storytelling. Kathryn produced, edited and co-wrote the Netflix Original Documentary Circus of Books, Executive Produced by Ryan Murphy.  Her previous projects include Copwatch (Official Selection – Tribeca Film Festival 2017), Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back (Official Selection – Tribeca Film Festival 2016) and Marvel’s Captain America: 75 Heroic Years (Disney-ABC Television).