by Mike Skiff - Third Rail Media
Summer’s here and the time is right for…relaxing in a cool, dark theater with friends and strangers while watching movies at a queer film festival - OR, in a steamy, dark playspace with friends and strangers. Your choice.
This 2011 film festival season has a number of films and party events that kinksters can check out.
San Francisco’s Frameline celebrated it’s 35th season in June, hosting a special program of shorts called, Please May I Have Another? One was director Richard Kimmel’s Black Rose Tango, a visually stunning work of cinematic poetry, about a pathos-fueled dance between a gender-bending cabaret performer and her/his swarthy partner, set against the backdrop of New York’s annual Black Party. Frameline also screened Jeffery McHale’s short documentary Crowned & Bound which gives audiences a front-row seat - and backstage pass – to the 2010 International Mr. Leather contest, and features interviews with IML winner Jason Hendrix and “den daddy” Joey McDonald.
“We've received lots of positive feedback from our audience members, filmmakers and Leather Community members about having a Kink shorts program at Frameline35,” said Desiree Buford of Frameline. “It was wonderful to see a fantastic turn-out for the screening with lots of visible Leather folks and perhaps a few not-so-vanilla cardigan queers in the audience.”
Several major queer film festivals happen in July, including Outfest in Los Angeles (July 7-17) and Philadelphia QFest (July 7-18).
Los Angeles’ Eagle leather bar (and sponsor of the LA Rebellion rugby team), will be hosting the after-party to for With You (Thurs, July 14 7pm, Laemmle Sunset 5). This powerful, work-in-progress documentary from Scott Gracheff celebrates the life of gay rugby player Mark Bingham, among several heroes attributed with trying to stop the terrorist takeover of Flight 93 during the 9/11 attacks, ending tragically.
Philadelphia QFest will make its provocative contributions with two offerings: The Art Of Hardcore – Then and Now (Sat, July 16 9:45pm Ritz Theater 1) a program of titillating shorts…as well as that other IML documentary I mentioned before.
One of the “Hardcore” shorts is Sagat by filmmakers Jerome M. Oliveira and Pascal Roche, who gets up close and personal with Titan Media porn-star, turning mainstream actor, Francois Sagat - known to many for his strong, masculine persona – and trademark scalp tattoo! There will also be a VIP Dinner with Francois Sagat (7pm-9pm at The Prime Rib) prior to QFest’s The Art Of Hardcore –Then and Now program, benefiting the Philadelphia Cinema Alliance which produces QFest.
I am very honored that my own, award-winning documentary Kink Crusaders has been selected to screen twice at Philadelphia QFest (Thursday, July 14 9:30pm at Ritz East Theater 2 and Sunday, July 17 9:30pm at Ritz at the Bourse). The Bike Stop is also hosting an after-party following the July 14 screening.
Kink Crusaders looks at how the three-decade old International Mr. Leather contest got its start in the back of a Chicago leather bar by founder Chuck Renslow, and has grown into a yearly event attracting tens of thousands of men and women from around the world for a weekend of debauchery, marketing and competition. Several past winners speak to the contest’s evolution from a gay beauty pageant into a ritual of selecting a leather leader based on “mind, body and spirit.”
Kink Crusaders will get it’s west coast premiere as part of CineKink’s Best of 2011 Tour which hits Portland’s Oregon Leather Pride Weekend (from August 5-14). CineKink co-founder Lisa Vandever is dedicated to programming sex-positive films of transgression and artistic integrity. Other Tour stops scheduled later this year are Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Austin. If any film festival is geared for the Leatherati crowd, it’s CineKink!
I asked my festival contacts at Frameline, Outfest and QFest what films of the past would they consider “seminal” to the canon of kinky cinema.
Desiree Buford of Frameline:
The Wild Ones (1954, starring Marlon Brando) “An iconic and formative leather-identity classic: Bikers, leather jackets and bad boys, WOOF!”
Alley of the Tranny Boys (DIR: Christopher Lee, 1998) “The first feature length porno staring a full cast of female-to-male transexual men. It employs a 70's retro aesthetic, going to the roots of popular pornography, to subvert traditional erotic codes by casting tranny boys in traditional macho male roles.”
Kristin Schaffer of Outfest:
“The works of Kenneth Anger from the 50's & 60's (Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and Scorpio Rising). And for the lesbians, the films of Barbara Hammer from the 70's (Dyketatics). “
Ray Murray of Philadelphia QFest:
“Mr. Leather (2005); Shooting Porn (1997, dir. Ronnie Larson); two British docs that examined alternative sexuality both directed by Amery Peart - Digital Sex (2001) and Future Sex (2002); a controversial feature film which did not play many other fests - Fucked in the Face (2000, dir. Shawn Durr). We've also done a lot of lesbian porn documentaries including a few films by Annie Sprinkle.”
Today’s queer film festivals present programs ranging from including family fare sing-alongs to provocative, unflinching explorations or our kinky identities. Kirsten Schaffer, the Executive Director for Outfest notes that much of the gay liberation movement has been about transforming fundamental institutions of society such as gender and family and included pushing boundaries around sexuality. “Cutting-edge stories and images, including those about sexuality, are part of our history, our culture and our future.”
“The Bay Area is home to a huge and thriving Kink & Leather community,” says Desiree Buford of Frameline, “and hosts such landmark alternative sexuality events such as Up Your Alley, Folsom Street Fair and IMsL. Kinky folks have always been a part of our beloved audience and it's important that there be Kink voices and a Kink presence in Frameline's programming. There is something uniquely transformative about seeing images of one's experience and identity reflected on the screen, but at a Festival screening there is also further affirmation of identity due to the communal viewing experience.”
Philly QFest’s Ray Murray offers a unique take on their kinky programming: “We feel that it is part of our mission to push the envelope - the sexual envelope - maybe because our day jobs are at TLA where gay porn pulsates in our veins. Years ago I became frustrated with other festivals that almost ignore porn - which for many gay men is a part of their sexual life. We embrace it...”
Kink cinema is making a positive comeback after the darker days of the 80s and 90s: the low cost of video equipment has made storytelling and documenting more democratic; erotic artistic expression enjoys a less oppressive political climate under the current administration; and the mandate that sex be equated with sickness and death during the creative process has, fortunately, been relaxed.
New projects reflecting our kinky world will be trying to find acceptance at future film festivals. These include a documentary in the works about the International Ms. Leather competition and director Garry Bowie’s multi-part series The Long Road Forward that examines the rich history of the Los Angeles-based Satyrs motorcycle club, in existence for over fifty years.
Check out your local queer film festival, support the provocative titles they’re screening and let programmers know there is an audience for kinky cinema.
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