ZONA ROSA is a colorful, lively, and entertaining documentary about the young men who are male strippers in the gay clubs of Mexico City's Zona Rosa. The credible parts of the film are those showing the actual dancing that takes place in these famous clubs: the controversial aspect of the 'documentary' is that portion (the major part) of the film that goes out of its way to emphasize that all of these hunky stripping Latin men are straight and are doing this work for the art of it and for female customers! Indeed, almost all the shots of the men in action on the stages of these clubs focus on the front rows of people in attendance - and naturally those are women, in gay clubs, without men in sight....
Director Dan Castle uses a lot of film to interview one Christian, an exotic dancer in the most famous of the clubs, and the interview includes footage of his approving mother, his young son (he is divorced and living at home), and repeated declarations that exotic dancing cannot be examined as a preface to any other aspects of life. Likewise his fellow dancers are interviewed, declaring that the dances are intended for female clientèle, while at the same time the young studs are adamant in their claims that women are rude and intrusive whereas the gay clientèle are respectful of their roles as entertainers (wherever those reverential men might be hiding in the club shots). Jump ahead one year and we see Christian living with his protégé, a body builder/trainer who Christian is prepping as a stripper, each of the two men commenting at length about each other's physical erotic attributes...
The DVD 'Extra' is an extended survey of several of the men's dancing routines, dances that ultimately include full frontal nudity. There is also a funny 'banana contest' which in many ways seems demeaning to the contestants. Along the way in this film we see interviews with club owners describing their complete control of the shows, gay activists who talk about the police censorship of the clubs, the failed attempts at gay pride parades, the closure of 60 of the clubs in 2001, and the lack of a vocal gay community. All of this goes along with the 'Latin macho' concept that everything associated with male stripping in gay clubs is solely for the pleasure of women. It leaves the viewer wondering why the very erotic film was made in the first place! Hello? Grady Harp, September 06
