“Bondage is freedom.” Leather demonstrates that this seemingly self-contradictory statement holds true for aficionados of BDSM. The testimonies of several members of the leather community explain the attraction; the freedom that surrender can provide, the sense of well being that the trust implicit in the activity promotes. The sleek, well-composed cinematography (of relatively tame practices) conveys the allure of quasi-religious ritual that leather-play can attain in Hardy Haberman’s short 1995 black and white film.