Toby Ross

Toby Ross is an American film director who made straight and gay pornographic films in the 1970s and 1980s and later on went to produce non sexual and cult films with a strong sense of comedic flare. Many film aficionados consider Ross the only missing link between Adult films and commercial independent films ("Ross—himself a prominent 70s queer filmmaker whose films bridged the gap between porn, exploitation, and art cinema"),[1] as Ross calls it The Antarctica of the film business. He was born in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. At the age of eight, his mother having remarried an Austrian Jew, he moved with his mother and stepfather to Israel. He served two years in the Israeli army. After studies in Los Angeles, attracted by stories of the freedom in San Francisco, he moved there in the 1970s.[2]

Before Ross made feature films he made loops, which were shot on silent 8mm or 16mm. His earliest feature films were partially composed of some of his loops with added soundtracks. Some of his later films were very successful in underground gay film circles. These films include Do Me Evil, Cruisin' 57, and Schoolmates.

His earlier theatrical features were released under Cinema Mirage. In 1980 he started a company called Hornbill Films which he used to release his hard core films onto VHS and in 1995 his regular general audience films some shown in various festivals.

In the early 1980s he began making movies on video instead of film.

He no longer makes hardcore porn movies, only "erotic story movies."[3]

On October 8, 2008, Canadian film maker and experimental klezmer/hip hop musician Josh Dolgin showed Cruisin' 57 at the Pop Montreal music festival; the film was accompanied by a live band and played to a packed house with standing room only.[4][5]

In the winter of 2010 Josh Dolgin released his Film "Socalled The Movie" in which parts of a documentary he made with Ross profiles Toby Ross as one of his influences.[6]