If you seek historical perspective on gay life or gay rights in the 1970s after the historic Stonewall riots, the best bet is John Scagliotti's After Stonewall. But for more explicit descriptions of sexual activity, you can check out Joseph F. Lovett's Gay Sex in the 70s that will soon be available on DVD through Wolfe Video. Short on perspective, it's essentially a scrapbook of archive footage, photographs, and brief porno clips, combined with fond remembrances from "talking head" participants (now in their 50s and 60s) that frequented the scene in Manhattan.

Known primarily as the hedonistic pre-AIDS decade, the 1970s are painted here as the most libertine era since Roman days. The survivors fondly reminisce about various Manhattan haunts where gay men could openly engage in sex—the piers on the Hudson, the trucks, the gay bathhouses and bars, and cruising on Christopher Street. All seem especially smitten with remembrances of the old days on Fire Island—a Long Island sanctuary regarded as a Shangri-La of freedom and beautiful bodies.

Not all was paradise in those testosterone filled Bacchanalian days, however. More than one describes "the trucks" in particular as especially scary—large groups of men climbing into dark caverns to grope and pleasure each other, and where you felt relief when you came out alive and with your wallet intact. Others recall frequent treatment for STD's with one telling how he found a gay doctor to treat his mouth for gonorrhea after his original doctor said it would be impossible unless he was a "pervert."

Often pulsing to disco beats, Lovett does successfully capture the limited openly gay sex scene in Manhattan with primarily white middle class subjects. One African American survivor is included in the mix, and a few people of color are occasionally captured in archive footage. A few public cruising areas are mentioned (like the subway) but the focus remains with white middle class haunts—like the famous Studio 54, which granted admission much more readily to "well endowed" gay men.

Pieced together somewhat chronologically, the documentary's substance remains understated and primarily comes towards the end. One man recounts how he eagerly anticipated his first orgy when all the beautiful men he's ever imagined gathered in a Fire Island dwelling, but his lover had insisted that they leave before the fun began. He pointedly states that he believes all those other men are now dead—the curse of AIDS. Activist/writer Larry Kramer also points out that it was groups like the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) that took control of their own plight when early reports of an epidemic "cancer" afflicting gay men came out.

Hints that the older generation of gay men hope that the younger generation can find a way to enjoy the same pleasures that they once had, realizing that times have changed due to AIDS and that the era before Stonewall should never be repeated. They all favor celebration of their sexuality over repression, and it's hard to argue against that. One even expresses the belief that the libertine cycle will again return.

But these sentiments act more like footnotes since the documentary primarily strives to render a graphic photograph of the scene, creating much more nostalgia than substance. This is not a documentary for the History Channel; its scope is far too narrow. Gay Sex in the 70s has played successfully at gay film festivals and in extremely limited release to select audiences. The DVD is destined for similarly limited appeal that will find its way into households on Christopher Street, the Castro, South Beach, and other gay communities along with scattered players.