Lonely postal worker Paul (Paul Eady) hears of a gay bar in the tabloid press, goes there and meets executive Grant (Robert Shannon) who takes him to a gay nightclub where he meets lovers John (David Herkt) and Riki (Peter Heperi). He sleeps with Grant but can't move in because Grant is engaged to Joy (Donna Akerson). He thinks of becoming a prostitute like Riki but instead begins a relationship with John. Grant is arrested in a bog but not charged. He and Joy meet Paul in a gay bar and he comes out to Joy. He is left alone, while Paul and John's relationship develops.

Director, producer, screenplay: Richard Turner. Trilogic Film Productions with script development assistance from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Budget $100,000. Censorship R18, 16mm, colour, 79 m.

Posters:

"GRANT HAS TWO LOVES IN HIS LIFE, HIS FIANCEE AND HIS BOYFRIEND"

"A DISTURBING CONTROVERSIAL AND REVEALING STORY OF RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUALS"

"Perhaps the first feature film anywhere to deal seriously with bisexuality" - Los Angeles Times (anywhere but Europe, perhaps)

The New Zealand Film Commission denied the film funding, on the ground that it did not have marketting appeal, but the makers maintained it was because of the film's content.

Patricia Bartlett's Society for the Promotion of Community Standards campaigned against the film, and the premiere at the Berkeley, Mission Bay, in May 1980, was picketted by demonstrators carrying signs saying eg "God says 'NO'".

Critics considered it uneven and preachy, and the minor characterisations - especially the het. characters - 'thin', while gay activists said it was not radical enough. Peter Wells wrote in Film in Aotearoa New Zealand (1992), "I disliked the film intensely: because, in part it was done in such a straight linear fashion - which to me means straight in the most pejorative sense of the word. ... I supported it politically, of course, but in many ways... it outraged me - because it was attempting to speak for what I saw as 'my' world."

Based on the article in Film in Aotearoa New Zealand and information from David Herkt. Written by Hugh Young. .