Blackmen.net

About a year ago, I received a screener of an all-black film called Marc's Hawaiian Dreams, produced by BlackMen.Net. It was like no all-black film I had ever seen, with a plot-driven story, incendiary sex and handsome, muscular models. That film was followed by another, Spilling the Tea. Though lighter in tone, plot-wise, the film had equally sizzling sex and equally handsome models. Spilling the Tea was a finalist for the GayVN "Best Ethnic Video" award this year.

I wrote to the studio and got a cordial reply from director Xavier McDonald, whom I learned was also one of the two men behind the creation of the Web site BlackMen.Net.

The site is being re-designed this year, but don't let that stop you from visiting it right now. The models are magnificent, including identical twins Keyon and Teyon, pictured at the right, who have a solo scene together and two three-ways on the website.

McDonald's goal in launching BlackMen.Net was to glamorize black men while avoiding the thug image. They began with solos and still photography, but soon expanded into hardcore video, including some straight scenes.

Besides BlackMen.Net, McDonald and model Marc Williams jointly operate the site MarcWilliamsXXX.com, which emphasizes VOD rather than memberships.

Here's part of my chat with Xavier McDonald.


How do you find models? What part of the country are you located in? Does your company have a formal mission statement?
We find models a variety of ways. Some guys send us photos. Others are friends with, or have worked with, other models who have worked with us. Some are referred by model recruiters. We're based in Atlanta. We don't have a formal mission statement, but the informal goal when we started the site was to showcase black men in an upscale, stylish, sophisticated, and classy way — basically to glamorize them rather than to depict black men as thugs. We also wanted our product to look professional, from a technical perspective.

Are you the sole director for the website and the DVD releases?
My business partner and I work together in all of the various components of the website and DVD production. If one is assigning titles to things, I am the director and he is the producer. We keep things very small and intimate on our shoots, and we're hands-on, so we don't use other directors. Our set is not one where you've got a crew of 10 people watching the models perform; it's just the models with me, my business partner, and occasionally one other assistant. That's just the way we do things, as we think it's much easier for the models to perform naturally in that setting.

Have you ever appeared as a model/in front of the camera?
Nope. Trust me, you wouldn't want to see that.

Is the concept of the "Down Low" another racial stereotype or is it a fairly accurate reflection of the community represented in your films and on your site?
I think it is a bit stereotypical because, trust me, there are white men on the "down low" just like there are black men, but I personally don't find it offensive at all. It is what it is. Humans are complex sexual creatures, and yet there are these societal "norms" reinforced by families and churches and so forth that seem to suppress open human sexual behavior that is outside such norms, so the only alternative that many feel comfortable with is the "down low" behavior. I would add here that there are a ton of married and/or ostensibly straight women who are on the "down low" as well. It's not just a male thing, or a black thing.

We have not addressed the "down low" phenomenon specifically in our videos. We will at some point, and when we do it will be probably be done with a touch of drama as well as a touch of humor.

Marc's Hawaiian Dreams was labeled Volume 1. Will there be a Volume 2?
Absolutely. It has been shot and is being edited now. A couple of clips from it are on the Marc Williams site (MarcWilliamsXXX.com). Marc is back to being a top in Volume 2.

What was your road to becoming a director?
My business partner and I decided to start the website in 2000, because there was simply no one doing high quality black stuff on the Web, or in the retail market, at that time. You had Bel Ami doing great stuff with European white guys, and you had Kristen Bjorn doing high quality Latin stuff, but there wasn't anything remotely appealing about 99% of the black male stuff in the market. Once we launched the site, somebody had to direct. I had more of a technical background, so it was me.

Do you feel sidelined or discounted when your work is categorized as "ethnic"? White is an ethnicity, too, but it doesn't get pigeonholed that way. Do you know the ethnic composition of your membership?
I don't think it discounts our product but, yes, I feel it sidelines our material to some extent. I think our "ethnic" product compares favorably to the non-ethnic product on the market. For sure, we serve a niche market, just like a twink company serves a niche market. I would like to see one of our titles nominated for Best Video, period, rather than Best Ethnic Video, but I don't have control over that.

We have some rough statistics as to the racial composition of our membership, because we collect that when they sign up. There is plenty of interest in black men amongst black men and white men of all backgrounds. We get a great deal of interest from Europe, for example.