It's been more than 10 years since Strand Releasing had the clever idea to pick three gay short films and release them together in theaters. Over the ensuing years they released four more compilations of shorts that provide an intriguing look at how gay movies — and gay and bisexual men — have changed over the past decade.

All in all, the 20 short films that comprise the five-DVD set of Boys Life: The Complete Collection remain true to their motto. They are films of “lust, love, libidos and liberation.” And for the most part it's sexual — not political — liberation they are referring to. Many of the films deal with gay sexual fantasies or reminiscences of same-sex encounters with straight males. Several of the films don't even mention the word “gay” in reference to the same-sex content.

Some of the Boys Life films are suitable as a kind of educational, gay-positive, coming-out guide, and some of the scenarios in Boys Life might seem downright corny if they did not ring so true. The environs depicted in these films are often typical of those that may accompany a young or closeted gay man's first homosexual awakening: gyms, steam rooms, swimming pools, locker rooms, lakes, forests, fields, public restrooms and college dorms.

Most of the Boys Life collection focuses on the primal homoerotic urge within gay men. Many of the films are a reminder that our early same-sex sexual encounters are “homosexual” first, and only later — through the development of our “gay” socio-political consciousness — do they become self-identified as “gay.”

In this sense, they are a lot like Brokeback Mountain. In fact, if Brokeback were a short film, it would fit in perfectly with the Boys Life collection. Overall, Boys Life: The Complete Collection reminds us how important it is for our own gay culture that our “lust, love, libido and liberation” be free and open for all to experience and enjoy.

Here is a look back at each of the five collections.

Boys Life 1: Pool Days by Brian Sloan; A Friend of Dorothy by Raoul O'Connell; The Disco Years by Robert Lee King

The three films that comprise Boys Life 1 are the least sexually graphic, and in a way the most innocent of the entire series. Nevertheless, they do include plenty of hot young guys and suggestive sexual situations. If there's a theme to Boys Life 1, it's that homoerotic feelings are OK. Released in the early 1990s, some elements of this first collection appear a bit dated, though humorous. For example, in Pools Days one character exclaims: “Hey! You have cable? Wow!”

Pool Days explores the coming-out of a typical suburban high school teen. Justin has just landed a summer job as a lifeguard at a local health club. In the sexually symbolic environs of the club's swimming pool and steam room, the camera follows Justin's sexual awakening. As Justin eyes other male swimmers, it is clear he is seeing them in a new, sexually charged way.

A Friend of Dorothy explores the life of an optimistic but lonely college freshman who has just come out. He is trying to find kindred spirits to bond with on campus. With the help of his trusty fag hag girlfriend, he eventually learns to find a place for his own sexual identity at school. Needless to say, there's plenty of homoerotic college dorm and roommate scenes.

In The Disco Years, a gay high school teen learns the painful lesson that not all of his sexual partners will turn out to be gay like him. After experiencing rejection and misunderstanding, he learns to find peace and acceptance at his town's gay disco bar.

Boys Life 2: Must Be the Music by Nickolas Perry; Nunzio's Second Cousin by Tom DeCerchio; Alkali, Iowa by Mark Christopher; The Dadshuttle by Tom Donaghy

In the second volume of Boys Life, the series takes something of a left turn. The films in this collection explore a darker, grittier side of gay life. Additionally, the acting, directing and camera work here is of higher quality. The thematic emphasis is no longer on coming out, but on acceptance of homosexuality as a simple fact of life.

The freewheeling, cocky superficiality of youthful gay night life and club culture is the subject of the slice-of-life, gay-valley-boy short, Must Be the Music.

In Nunzio's Second Cousin, viewers are treated to the gay side of a working-class, Sopranos- type urban neighborhood. A gay hate crime gets turned around when the perpetrators don't realize their victim is actually a local, hard-boiled police detective. This film features top-notch performances by actors Vincent D'Onofrio (Men in Black, Full Metal Jacket) and Eileen Brennan (Private Benjamin). And keep an eye open for a brief walk-on role by future star Seth Green as the young Homophobe No. 3.

In the sensuous yet ghostly Alkali, Iowa, dark secrets abound in the heartland. Down on the farm a secretly gay son learns the truth about his deceased father, and in the process affirms a special, spiritual kinship to his own land and family.

The well-written The Dadshuttle plays like a classic Hemingway short story. Hidden thoughts and feelings become revealed in non sequiturs and evasive small talk. This brilliant little piece is actually just a filmed conversation between two people that takes place entirely in a car, while a father is driving his openly gay son to a train station.

The Dadshuttle exposes the wide gulf that opens up between family members as a result of the AIDS crisis.

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