Not Angels But Angels

This article is about the 1994 film. For the quote by which it is named, see Pope Gregory I.
Not Angels But Angels
Directed byWiktor Grodecki
Written byWiktor Grodecki
CinematographyVladimír Holomek
Edited byWiktor Grodecki
Release date
  • 1994 (1994)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryCzech Republic
LanguagesEnglish, Czech

Not Angels But Angels is a 1994 documentary film about teenage boys and young men in Prague working as prostitutes, primarily there and also in other European cities in the region. The creator of the documentary, Wiktor Grodecki interviews the hustlers, who give ages ranging from 14 to 20 years, to find out more about their lives and how they came to make a living by selling sex.[1][2] The film explores their hopes and fears, what they hope to be doing in the future, and coping with the possibility of being infected with HIV.[3] The film also presents comments by a man who arranges liaisons between tourists and young male hustlers in the Prague central train station.[4] The conversations are in a mix of Czech with English subtitles, and English.

The film is the first of Grodecki's trilogy of films about male prostitution, the other two being Body Without Soul and Mandragora,[5] and was shown at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in 1995.[6]

  1. ^ Richard Harrison. "'Not Angels But Angels' (1994) - A review by Richard Harrison". CinematicWorld UK. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  2. ^ Mroz, Matilda (2016). Cinematic Bodies of Eastern Europe and Russia. Edinburgh University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-4744-0515-7.
  3. ^ Kolářová, Kateřina (24 July 2019). "Mediating Syndromes of Postcommunism: Disability, Sex, Race, and Labor". Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. 58 (4): 156–162. doi:10.1353/cj.2019.0046. ISSN 2578-4919. S2CID 200163414.
  4. ^ Griffiths, Robin; Griffiths, Robin Mark (2008). Queer Cinema in Europe. Intellect Books. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-84150-079-9.
  5. ^ Villiers, Nicholas de (2017). Sexography: Sex Work in Documentary. U of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-1-4529-5390-8.
  6. ^ "Not Angels But Angels (1994)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved 24 December 2019.