When Dave Hockey or Midiman as he is known in the doll community, set out to do a documentary about love dolls, he not only got his feet wet but he dove in head first.
In 2008 Dave set out on a three year journey to produce a fair and balanced documentary on the love doll community. He has been a staple in the love doll community ever sense.
Dave is co-owner of the community's largest forum for love doll owners "The Doll Forum" www.dollforum.com. He also is co-owner of a monthly eZine, "Coverdoll".
Dave's interest in dolls started when he discovered them by accident. He was online searching for a teddy bear site when he came across whats called Teddy Babes.
Teddy Babes are unlike teddy bears in the fact that they have human faces and female boobs. According to the Teddy Babe website, they advertise them as being for" guys too old to play with teddy bears".
Dave also is the Canadian distributor for Eighth Wonder; the company who manufactures the Teddy Babes.
Thanks to his research for his documentary, Dave acquired Bianca. Bianca is the Real Doll used in the main stream movie "Lars and the Real Girl".
He takes Bianca everywhere. She has traveled with him from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast, meeting doll owners across the US and Canada. He even takes her to the UK to meet UK doll owners.
According to Dave, he has grown attached to Bianca. “I believe dolls and stuffed toys that portray living beings and creatures do trigger a psychological response in most of us that you don't get from other types of objects.”
The dolls and the making of the documentary were not cheap. With travel, insurance, and other expenses, Dave spent about $42,000 in the making of his documentary.
He spent his own money doing this. Why you may wonder? Well for Dave, he wanted to produce a documentary that was not based on sensationalism, but on good journalism. He wanted to document the doll community as it realy was.
There are other documentaries out there that portray doll owners as guys lonely and desperate for sex. According to Dave, all but one of the 20 doll owners interviewed, have had sex in one form or another with their doll, but for 50% of love doll owners, Sex is not the main reason for owning the doll.
Dave does have a world wide distribution contract for his documentary "All Dolled Up". However, some broadcasters have requested a version that was not as light hearted. Dave says he's happy to accommodate with a second version to give broadcasters a choice and that the changes will not take away from the integrity of the documentary
The doll community is unlike any other community. Doll owners come from all walks of life. All different lifestyles are represented in the doll community.
Like every community there is conflict and competition between forums. Being a big part of the community, Dave/Midiman, is right in the center of it, not that he wants to be.
He has had to learn to deal with discrimination and personal attacks against him and the forum...something he had never encountered until he started this journey into the doll world.
As someone who got a private viewing of the documentary while Dave was in LA a few months ago, I can honestly say that his documentary is the fairest most accurate doll documentary to date.
"All Dolled Up" is destined to be a success and some have hailed it as the definitive documentary on love dolls and their owners, replacing Guys and Dolls. Hopefully one day in the near future we will get to see his documentary the way he hoped...on TV. Dave has already begun filming for his next doll documentary.
All in all, Dave's involvement in the love doll community has been extensive. His love for his dolls and his community is evident to everyone he meets. So many great reactions. Many curiosity. When ever Dave is out with a doll, he is more then happy to tell you all about it.
He has become a true ambassador for the doll community, as he travels the world with his silicone movie star, Bianca and his harem of dolls.
Comments
I Wonder?
Thanks for review dollluver,
I wonder if it will be offered to some of the TV stations to show as a documentary.
I am fairly sure our sbs station would be interested. www.sbs.com.au
dolltime
Great expectations,...
G'day everyone,...
This documentry should disspell a lot of myths about Doll owners and I do hope our SBS station would pick this up!
It would be good to see it down here and I hope it takes off elswhere.
Time for some home truths rather than wives tales.
Playtime.
Playing with Dolls is a Joy!
WARNING: The Dolls are starting to play Back!
Nice article
Hi Dollluver :)
Really nice article.
I'm still waiting to hear from you :?
Kharn
CoverDoll Publisher To err is human to forgive divine.
What a great article!
This was an outstanding article, Dollluver, and is probably your best so far--though all of them have been good. It gives a real in a nutshell look at Midiman and his experiences in the doll community. He truly is one of our most important figures in the community and ambassadors to the mainstream world. I agree that All Dolled Up is destined for greatness. I just hope it starts down that path sooner than later.
Great work, DL. :)
Thanks everyone for the kind
Thanks everyone for the kind responses. As a writer, I do consider this to be my best I have done for CD. It was done that way for a reason. I have submitted it to several main stream publications in hopes that midi gets some publicity from the main stream media. Fair publicity. I always appreciate the comments and enjoy coming up with articles every month for CD. Looking forward to publishing next months article.
Thanks Dolluver, a great
Thanks Dolluver, a great read and a fascinating insite of the the man behind the movi, well documentry, but it didn't sound as good!
No matter where he or Bianca may roam they are great ambasators for the doll world and both do a grand job of promoting the hobby.
Yes midi is a great promoter
Yes midi is a great promoter of the doll community. I saw that first hand in LA when we went to Exotica. The documentery portrays that well. I hope he is able to distribute it. Thanks for the comment.