Circus of Books

CIRCUS OF BOOKS is a family story, told by Rachel Mason, daughter of Karen and Barry, a middle-class Jewish couple that stumbled into the hardcore pornography (publications and DVDs) business and ran it for 30 years. The secret of how they made a living was kept from their three children, family, friends, and the conservative synagogue Karen attended. The store is referred to as a "gourmet purveyor of sexual material and a safe place to find other gays" during the decades long before anti-discrimination laws and legalized gay marriage, back when, as one interviewee puts it, "being a homo was unspeakable." The Masons faced federal charges for obscenity, but the change from a Republican to a Democratic administration saved them. Intercut into the bookstore's story is the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic and losses of employees, colleagues, and friends. Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt remembers the Masons as people everyone wanted to do business with because they were honest. Late in the film, Karen's struggle to accept that her oldest son is gay becomes the focus and the story's emotional center.