The Ballad of the Pornstar Turned Cult Leader

I have a bit of an obsession with cults. I try my best to devour every possible documentary I can find dealing with the subject and recently watched one on Netflix called Holy Hell. It explores a cult by the name of Buddhafield which was founded in the mid-80s by a mysterious man with a predilection for wearing Speedos named Michel Rostand. Rostand—who bares more than a passing resemblance to Napoleon from Bill & Ted—was a charismatic figure who eventually recruited hundreds of people into his cult, forcing them to sever ties with their families, and eventually turning Buddhafield into a place where people worshipped him rather than commune with one another. This eventually leads to sexual abuse and all manner of criminal behavior that's best left to the film itself and not this article. 

An interesting revelation late in the film, however, is that Rostand had once dabbled in gay porn, and some censored clips make their way into the film. Wondering if these were still available in some form, I poked and prodded the unsavory corners of the internet before eventually turning up two of his videos in a place I never would have suspected: Falcon Studios. That's right, one of the premiere gay porn production houses in the US still hosts two of this dude's vintage clips, and they're every bit as absurd as the era in which they were shot. 

Rostand, then going by the singular moniker Dirk, puts his athletic skills to good use in these two clips. The first, titled Bronc Rider, finds "Dirk" and Michael Delfino getting busy on a bed. No audio seems to have survived, but Dirk's athletic skills certainly must have made him quite popular in those days (hint, that's him on top)...

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The second clip, Winner's Way, is your standard gay porn setup where two ostensibly straight males can't help but get down to suckin' and fuckin' once their girlfriends go shopping or whatever. It once again shows Dirk's unique skills on display as he and his pal commence to fuckin' in a stairwell...

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Overall, they're both pretty awful clips, with tons of period appropriate "wack-a-chook-a" music, but beyond that, there's something seriously disturbing about the fact that they're still available to be viewed on Falcon's site. 

As Rostand's crimes come to light in the film, the notion of seeking out his gay sex scenes and deriving pleasure from them is something of a dicey moral proposition. Does porn become less erotic once you know that you're watching a sex offender in action? I happen to think that it does, but maybe that's just me. I find it impossible to establish an sort of aesthetic distance that would allow me to be turned on by what I'm seeing because I know where this guy's story ends. Again, this could just be my hang-up, but I seem to think this is probably going to plague most anyone finding these clips after watching the documentary.

I think it's time for Falcon to take these two scenes down. It's not even like they're super sexy and need to be preserved for some grander historical purpose. You can find every single one of these acts in a porn that doesn't involve a cult leader. You could certainly mount an argument that I'm attempting to stand on some moral high ground here, judging from afar, but I just feel it might be time for Falcon to say enough is enough and take these videos down. 

If you're interested in watching Holy Hell, it's currently streaming on Netflix, and I recommend checking it out. What do you think? Should Falcon leave these videos up in light of the revelations about one of the men involved in them or am I overreacting to this whole thing? Sound off in the comments section below.