First Showtime production to win a Golden Globe.
One of the subjects whose black and white photo was shown in the film is Roy M. Cohn. James Woods played Cohn in Citizen Cohn (1992).
The film was shot in Toronto, with Old City Hall used as the setting for the courtroom scenes.
Many of the actual Robert Mapplethorpe photographs displayed in the exhibit, including some of the more controversial ones, are seen in the film. A warning at its start advises viewers of the film's content and explains the necessity of displaying the images to allow both an understanding of the graphic nature of the handful of provocative pictures that prompted Dennis Barrie's arrest and an appreciation for the overall beauty of the photographer's portraitures and depictions of nature.
Filmed in cooperation with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation; features over 200 of the artist's original photographs.