On January 7, 1980, journalist Gay Talese received a letter from a man in Colorado named Gerald Foos, who revealed that he had bought a motel in order to "satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies and compelling interest in all phases of how people conduct their lives, both socially and sexually…I did this purely out of my unlimited curiosity about people and not as just a deranged voyeur." Bulding an observation platform above the rooms, Foos was able to peer down on his unwitting guests and kept detailed notes on their activities for decades. After travelling to Colorado to verify the story and read some of Foos' extensive journals, Gay Talese wound up filing the story away as the motel owner insisted on remaining anonymous. Gee, I wonder why.
Talese finally released "The Voyeur's Motel" in 2016 and a feature-film adaptation of the book was soon in the works which was to be directed by Sam Mendes, but, after finding out about a documentary which was in the works at the same time, Mendes and the studio exited the project, costing Talese a million dollar payday. A recently released trailer for VOYEUR, the documentary in question directed by Josh Koury & Myles Kane, looks both incredibly compelling and quite unnerving as it dives into the repercussions of the story.
VOYEUR will debut on Netflix on December 1, 2017.
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