ALL MAN: The International Male Story

For three decades, one fashion catalogue helped define masculinity and male fashions in the US. This entertaining film charts the story of International Male.

Founded by Gene Burkard, a closeted Midwesterner and former GI, the fashion catalogue International Male launched shortly after his arrival in San Diego in the late 1960s. Bryan Darling and Jesse Finley Reed’s celebratory jaunt through Burkard’s storied life and the catalogue’s colourful history is a blast. Narrated by Matt Bomer and featuring a line-up of larger-than-life characters – including head buyer Gloria Tomita, with her appreciative eye for male beauty – it offers a fascinating analysis of post-war American masculinity and a moving account of the devastating effects of the AIDS crisis. But ultimately, it’s a celebration of an individual who transformed their dream into reality.