DADDY AND THE MUSCLE ACADEMY
dir. Ilppo Pohjola, 1991.
Finland, 55 min.
In Finnish and English.
playing with:
P(L)AIN TRUTH
dir. Ilppo Pohjola, 1993.
Finland, 15 min.
THURSDAY, JUNE 11 — 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17 — 10 PM
SATURDAY, JUNE 20 — 10 PM
MONDAY, JUNE 29 – 7:30 PM
Filmed shortly before his death in 1992, DADDY AND THE MUSCLE ACADEMY stands as the first and only documentary on Tom of Finland (Touko Laaksonen) featuring the artist speaking about his work in his own words.
The film traces Tom’s journey from rural Finland to his time serving in WWII, where the sight of men in uniform (and the intimacy of wartime) ignited a lifelong erotic fixation. His fetishization of these strong, muscular men—heavily influenced by sharply tailored outfits Hugo Boss designed for the Nazi Party, which Finland was allied with at the time—merged with Tom’s private fantasies, ultimately shaping the iconic leather daddy archetype we now see in normie museum gift shops around the globe.
DADDY AND THE MUSCLE ACADEMY features a cacophony of voices: along with Tom, leather daddies from across America share how his drawings shaped their identities. Featuring art world figures including Durk Dehner (director & co-founder of the Tom of Finland Foundation), homoerotic photographer Bob Mizer, and interdisciplinary artist Nayland Blake, the film reveals how private fantasies became highly influential public iconography.
Tom’s men—hyper-masculine, confident and horny beefcakes—shaped the aesthetics and attitudes of gay culture throughout the late 20th century. The film smartly juxtaposes a comprehensive retrospective of Tom’s illustrations with oiled up men’s men reenacting those drawings, set to a hypnotic, thumping industrial score by Elliott Sharp.
Over and over, they chant like a prayer: “I’m one of Tom’s men.”
Spectacle is pleased to reunite DADDY AND THE MUSCLE ACADEMY with Ilppo Pohjola’s 1993 short P(L)AIN TRUTH, which played alongside the feature during its original New York run at Film Forum. A gorgeous 35mm distillation and abstraction of the gender transition of “Rudi,” and acquaintance of the director, P(L)AIN TRUTH juxtaposes the beauty and freedom of transformation alongside the institutional bureaucracies that keep it in check. Utilizing both analog optical printing and early CGI, the film sets an abundance of powerful images to a haunting soundtrack by composer Glenn Branca. A 4k restoration has been provided by the filmmaker.
Special thanks to Zeitgeist Films and Ilppo Pohjola.