RENT BOY
“Sell the Body. Feed the Soul.”
Chicago, 1983 – A gay porn director must provide “fresh meat” to a hungry stocker broker, but when he preys upon a distant childhood friend, the last thing he expects is falling in love.
This film is an allegory for the journey of masculinity whilst being a critique on capitalism and patriarchy. Despite being historical fiction and a queer film set upon the stage of sex work, RENT BOY has an extremely universal theme: how much of ourselves do we sacrifice for the sake of survival?
RENT BOY took 4 years to complete, with its initial ideation beginning in Spring 2019. This film was originally intended to be Writer/Director Shay Van Lue’s collegiate senior thesis film, but the onslaught of the pandemic and the struggles it brought caused major delays and increasing expenses for the film. Determined, Van Lue found ways to stretch a shoe-string budget and bring together a skilled cast and crew to make this film.
Over time, RENT BOY went from being a humble student film to a full-fledged independent short film, which Van Lue is using to launch her production company, VAL Motion Pictures. The feature-length script for RENT BOY is currently in development as the short film awaits its acceptance into numerous festivals for the 2024 season.
Location
Chicago, IL
COmpleted
November 2023
Project Type
Short Film
Runtime
18:36
IN DEVELOPMENT
CHI’83 Project
“Who Were We in ’83?”
A living history project dedicated to fleshing out the gritty and forgotten world of early ’80s Chicago. The CHI’83 Project is a visual podcast led by filmmaker Shay Van Lue as she interviews locals who lived in Chicago during the early 1980s. This project is a cornerstone of research for Van Lue’s feature film, RENT BOY, which is set in Chicago during 1983.
Location
Chicago, IL
STATUS
Development
Project Type
Visual Podcast
Episodes
TBD
