Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival 2009

In a quiet Florida suburb, a group of young men struggling to escape the wreckage of their pasts have found an unusual way to create new lives for themselves: on the Web for the whole world to see. Their new home is CollegeBoysLive.com, a voyeur house rigged with 32 webcams, where their every move is watched live by thousands of paying members. The site’s creator claims CollegeBoysLive.com is simply about showing that “it’s okay to be gay,” but the neighbors insist it’s a pornographic whorehouse and sue to have them evicted.

Moreover, drama unfolds between the roommates and their keepers when the realities of life outside their virtual walls come crashing in via obsessive viewers, relationship woes, and trouble with the law. And any attempt at leading an off-camera life at school or a regular job competes with the constant pressure to perform for the cameras and keep the customers happy.

Part “Real World,” part “Jerry Springer,” and part “Queer as Folk,” this intimate and provocative documentary examines a complex subculture of voyeurism, exhibitionism, and the tradeoffs involved in sustaining it. But at its heart, COLLEGE BOYS LIVE is a surprisingly poignant search for family and acceptance.