An animated John Wayne eats his own penis.
A man is videotaped from the neck up while
he receives fellatio from an unknown woman.
Spiders are, indeed, in love. This collection
of modern avant-garde cinema will set your
head aflame with the limitless possibilities
in which we can communicate and demonstrate
eroticism (and it’s not always pretty).
It includes new work from acclaimed artists
Martha Colburn, R. Kern, Bruce LaBruce,
Eon McKai and Nick Zedd.
Clean
Hands, Dirty Photographs
2007 / U.S. / 1 min.
Director: Eon McKai
Extra
Action
2007 / U.S. / 58 mins.
Director: R. Kern
Give
Piece of Ass a Chance
2007 / Canada / 14 mins.
Director: Bruce LaBruce
Headshot
2006 / Netherlands / 9 mins.
Director: Jennifer Lyon Bell
Kill
John Wayne
2007 / U.S. / 6 ½ mins.
Director: Vivian Wong
Lift
Off
1998 / U.S. / 3 mins.
Director: Martha Colburn
Push-ups
2007 / U.S. / 2 mins.
Director: Vivian Wong
Spiders
in Love: An Arachnogasmic Musical
1999 / U.S. / 3 mins.
Director: Martha Colburn
The
Best of CineKink -
CineKink (CineKink.com) is, as you’d
imagine, a film festival devoted to all
things near and dear to our hearts: eroticism,
sexuality, fetishism and cinema. Known for
their open minds, tasteful aesthetics and
passionate integrity, they have been hailed
as “the really alternative film festival.”
LAEFF recently partnered up with CineKink
to work together in searching out the best
new erotica cinema (or is it “kink,”
we suppose it depends on who you ask) so
that we can share. This program of films
includes all award winners from CineKink’s
most recent festival. It represents a dynamic
range of styles, genres, content and, most
of all, possibilities. Located in NYC, they
are gearing up for their fifth festival
to take place Feb. 26-March 2, 2008. Check
it out.
Do
You Take It?
2006 / Canada / 3 mins.
Director: Kirby Ferguson
*Honorable Best Mention
Filthy
Food
2006 / U.S. / 5 mins.
Director: T. Arthur Cottam
*Best Experimental Short
guy101
2006 / UK / 8 mins.
Director: Ian Gouldstone
*Best Narrative Short (tie)
Hitchcocked
2006 / U.S. / 8 mins.
Director: David Young
*Best Narrative Short (tie)
Honey
and Bunny
2006 / UK / 10 mins.
Director: Eva Midgley
*Honorable Best Mention
Hot
and Bothered: Feminist Pornography
2006 / U.S. / 37 mins.
Director: Becky Goldberg
*Honorable Best Mention
Dick Ho is an enigma. Did he exist? Did
he have sex with all of those women on film?
Is he really an Asian man with a 12-inch
penis (flaccid)? You’ll get down to
the bottom of that mystery in the mockumentary
spoof Dick Ho: Asian Male Porn Star. Straight
out of Knoxville, Tenn., comes a strange
hybrid of anti-war/anti-Bush verité-style
documentary footage interwoven with highly
aesthetic amateur porn. Fuc Bush wears its
agenda on its sleeve while addressing head-on
the literal meaning of social-sexual economics.
Liberty in Restraint is a mesmerizing documentary
about the Australian artist Noel Graydon,
whose primary work involved photographing
fetishism, particularly in the BDSM world.
This fascinating and candid journey delivers
an honest portrayal of a subculture that
is oftentimes maligned or mocked when represented
by the popular culture. The film is made
even more urgent by the fact that Graydon
died tragically in July of a sudden illness
that came as a shock to his family, friends
and the filmmakers of this documentary.
Dick
Ho: Asian Male Porn Star
2005 / U.S. / 30 mins.
Director: Jeffrey Lei
Fuc
Bush
2006 / U.S. / 25 mins.
Director: Marcus Washington
Liberty
in Restraint
2005 / U.S. / 33 mins.
Director: Michael Ney
Eroticomedy
-
Sex
and humor have always been strange bedfellows.
Some of these films will have you reaching
for your crotch while you’re busting
a gut — a very strange sensation.
The humor runs the gamut from social satire
to spoof to just plain old fucked-up (as
in Fucked-Up Hot). Many of the more refined
films in this program come to us from
our sisters-in-crime over at CineKink
(see the program listing for Best of CineKink
for more information about their festival),
from a program they cleverly titled “Twisted
Knickers.” We, of course, provided
the rest of the fucked-up shorts.
Fucked-up
Hot
2007 / U.S. / 2 mins.
Director: Bobby Leigh
The
Honey Pot
1997 / U.S. / 8 mins.
Director: Todd Lincoln
Maid
of Honor
2006 / U.S. / 25 mins.
Director: Matt Morillo
Married
Life
2007 / UK / 2 mins.
Director: Tom Hickmore
No
Pussy for Polluters
2007 / U.S. / 1 ½ mins.
Director: Joe Gantz
Open
2006 / U.S. / 12 mins.
Director: Teale Failla
Pornographic
Apathetic
2006 / U.S. / 5 ½ mins.
Director: T. Arthur Cottam
Skelehellavision
2003 / U.S. / 10 mins.
Director: Martha Colburn
Sullivan’s
Last Call
2006 / U.S. / 18 mins.
Director: Francesca Rizzo
Eroticore
-
The porn industry has been flirting for
decades with the possibility of crossing
over into the mainstream and obtaining cinematic
respectability (although “Girls Gone
Wild” and its extreme porno cousin
“gonzo” haven’t helped anybody
with that notion, especially during our
current conservative administration). There
have been some strides made in the technical
quality, production value and storylines
of several recent big-budget porn films
— films that could easily pass for
an A-list Hollywood feature. We offer a
glimpse into this recent slate of films
featuring some of the biggest filmmakers
in the industry including Ethan Kane, Roy
Karch, Max Royale and John Stagliano.
Being
Paulina in Tokyo, Japan
2007 / U.S. / 30 mins.
Director: Dominic Acerra
Crush
2006 / U.S. / 2 ½ mins.
Director: Ethan Kane
Flash
2006 / U.S. / 2 ½ mins.
Director: Ethan Kane
Game
2006 / U.S. / 2 ½ mins.
Director: Ethan Kane
Hairless
gets Spunk’d
2007 / U.S. / 22 ½ mins.
Director: Justin Kane
Insertz
2007 / U.S. / 29 ½ mins.
Director: Roy Karch
Not
Another Porn Movie
2007 / U.S. / 20 mins.
Director: Joanna Angel
Meta-Erotica
-
Just as our Eroticore program focuses on
the porn industry’s bid for big-budget
Hollywood acceptability, this program is
the independent film’s equivalent response
to those studio films. These films are mostly
independently financed and distributed,
in the spirit of the punk rock DIY movement,
and embrace an entirely different artistic
value that runs contrary to the slick and
polish of their more mainstream brethren.
They aren’t afraid of tackling sensitive
subject matter or exploring difficult themes
and issues. That being said, not all of
the pieces presented here are free from
studio involvement but somehow they still
manage to turn that influence on its ear.
Just like Disney owns Miramax, sometimes
the most revealing content comes crashing
through the very institution it holds in
defiance.
Bad
Girl Part II
2007 / U.S. / 5 mins.
Director: Nathan Strausse
Blue
1992 / Canada / 22 mins.
Director: Don McKellar
Loud
Silence
2006 / U.S. / 25 mins.
Director: Marcus Washington
Meat
Angel X
2005 / U.S. / 10 mins.
Director: Joe Gallant
Re-Penetrator
2005 / U.S. / 25 mins.
Director: Doug Sakmann
Sluts
and Ammo
2007 / U.S. / 3 mins.
Director: Bella Vendetta
Ultra
Violet
2007 / U.S. / 13 mins.
Director: Max Royale
Mini-Features
-
Contrary to popular belief, the word “erotica”
isn’t a euphemism for porn. In fact,
the word actually refers to literature and
storytelling long before photographs, motion
pictures or DVDs were invented. So it goes
that, although this festival has its share
of porn, it also features many other works
of art that exist outside of that world.
This program in particular showcases an
international buffet of narrative-driven
shorts that come to us by such luminaries
as Sundance, Tribeca, Los Angeles and Silver
Lake film festivals, and several of them
have won multiple awards from around the
world.
The
Recycler
1994 / U.S. / 9 mins.
Director: Kent Smith
Reptile
Day
2006 / UK / 12 mins.
Director: Tom Hickmore
Salt
Kiss
2007 / Brazil / 18 mins.
Director: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa
The
Sugar on Top
2005 / U.S. / 35 mins.
Director: Bad Otis Link
Music
Videos -
Here are an eclectic group of music videos
all with one thing on their minds…
Blonde
Island: Funk Me
2007 / U.S. / 9 mins.
Director: Dr. Susan M. Block
The
End of Silence/Prequel to Immortality
2007 / U.S. / 4 mins.
Director: Dominic Acerra
Louis
XIV video
2007 / U.S. / 3 ½ mins.
Director: Eon McKai
She
Kills
2007 / U.S. / 3 mins.
Director: Dominic Acerra
Spanky!
Spanky!
2006 / U.S. / 4 mins.
Director: DJ Spot
STR8
ACTN
2007 / U.S. / 3 mins.
Director: Joe Gallant
Retro
-
One of the pieces in this program, Buried
Treasure, an animated wonder of sexual hi-jinx,
includes the handiwork of none other than
Walt Lantz himself, Woody Woodpecker’s
creator. The film was covertly commissioned
for Lantz and a few other early Disney animators
to work on as a birthday present for Disney’s
top animator, Winsor McCay. Thanks to curator
Keith Arnold, we get this and other fun
gemstones from the erotic vault including
some real old blue movie action. So get
your nickels ready as we revisit the past
and smile.
Buried
Treasure
1928 / U.S. / 4 mins.
Directors: George Canata, Walter Lantz,
George Stallings, Rudy Zamora, Jr.
Cupid
Gets His Man
1936 / U.S. / 7 mins.
Director: Tom Palmer
I’d
Like to Know You/Dance of Shame
1940 / U.S. / 5 mins.
Director: Unknown
Xperimental
Eros -
LAEFF is proud to screen this collection
of experimental shorts from the San Francisco
avant-garde DVD label Other Cinema (which
released the legendary experimental works
of Craig Baldwin, Mike Kuchar, Sam Green
and Bill Morrison). As the DVD package says,
“Be it tales of sexual obsession, rejected
letters to Penthouse Forum, or the Mr. Nude
Trucker Contest of 1976, no subject is taboo
… nor above deconstruction.” Curator
Noel Lawrence will be on hand to provide
a frame of reference and background details
for each piece in the program and why and
how he came about compiling them together.
For fans and students of experimental cinema
this is definitely not to be missed.
Blue
Movie
1994 / U.S. / 5 mins.
Director: Mark Street
The
Color of Love
1994 / U.S. / 9 ½ mins.
Director: Peggy Ahwesh
Downs
are Feminine
1993 / U.S. / 10 mins.
Director: Lewis Klahr
The
Influence of Ocular Light Perception of
Metabolism in Man and Animal
2005 / U.S. / 5 mins.
Directors: Thomas Draschan and Stella
Friedrichs
King
of Porn
1996 / U.S. / 7 mins.
Director: Jeff Krulik
Pacifier
1999 / U.S. / 11 ½ mins.
Director: Oscar Perez
Removed
1999 / U.S. / 6 ½ mins.
Director: Naomi Uman
Sexjunkie
2003 / U.S. / 9 mins.
Director: Julia Ostertag
Sneakin’
and Peekin’
1976 / U.S. / 15 mins.
Director: Tom Palazzolo
