>The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times are both agog today with confirmations that the YouTube.com webcam musings of Lonelygirl15 are actually the work of a team of filmmakers looking to make an attention-getting break into the business.
Again, whatever. No, it’s not like we’re jealous or anything that we didn’t think of it first.
>For those of us still deluded enough to believe occasionally entertain the fleeting notion that independent filmmaking is might be the surefire route to fame and fortune, director Caveh Zahedi interviews, well, himself, on the difficulties of bringing his latest opus, I Am A Sex Addict , into the fresh light of day.
When we happened to catch the film at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2005, we found it a funny and engaging account of Caveh’s attempts to balance his sometimes compulsive sexuality with a yearning for an intimate, romantic relationship, and–especially considering it actually has the word “sex” in its title–we were certain it was well on its way to immediate art house glory.
The glory, however, was a bit slow in coming and, from the sounds of it, the money’s been even more of a dribble. After a brief run last spring, I Am A Sex Addict is just out on DVD. Please buy it.
I Am A Sex Addict (movie trailer)
>By way of the Smoking Gun, word of yet another crackdown in the U.S. government’s war on terror obscenity. According to the report, federal officials announced the arrest on Wednesday of Danilo Simoes Croce, who was charged with “conspiracy to distribute obscene material, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $150,000 fine.” In support of the arrest is the postal inspector’s original complaint, also linked to in the Smoking Gun report, in which she names some of the fine features she had reviewed over the course of the three-year investigation– Toilet Man 6, Bukkake 3 and Scat Pleasures among them– and details, in precise if rather bloodless fashion, some of the action therein.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced last year that his office would begin specifically targetting “bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior” in pursuing new obscenity prosecutions and both the Department of Justice and the FBI began recruiting new task forces to pursue this endeavour. According to a press release issued at the time by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, forty people and businesses had been convicted of obscenity since 2001, with 20 additional indictments pending at the time; there were only four obscenity prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration.
>Steven Shainberg, director of Secretary, which took home the inaugural CineKink Tribute at CineKink ’03, has reteamed with screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson and producer Andrew Fierberg in creating Fur, a roughly biographical look at photographer Diane Arbus, who was renowned for shooting outsiders, freaks and other folks alot like us.
Starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr., the film recently premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, where Shainberg spoke with indieWIRE about the same-old, same-old of the biopic arc and the process of crafting an intimate portrait of Arbus’ inner life instead.
Fur goes next to the Rome Film Festival, then opens nationally in November.
>And another TiVo alert for tonight, this time for a Primetime: The Outsiders repackaging of several previously aired reports. Entitled – cough – “Strange Arrangements,” topics for this shiny new episode include “swinging, asexuality and marriage between cousins.” Reports on the original swinging episode were largely positive, so we’ll reserve judgment until about 10:57 pm EDT this evening, but the moment you feel the urge to Talk Back to John Stossel, go for it!
If you want to chew up some time until then, visit ABC’s poll vault and take a Peek Beneath the Sheets, a “groundbreaking” survey into American sexual behavior. Among the salacious statistics, among discussions of philanderings and three-ways and porn sites, is the revelation that 34% of women “think about sex every day.”
We’re no mathematicians, but this somehow leads us to the shocking possible conclusion that 66% of women don’t think about sex every day?!?
>We’re delighted to hear that the recent work of Elizabeth Elson, director of Born in a Barn, winner of the Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at CineKink ’05, will be featured on this month’s episode of In The Life, the gay and lesbian newsmagazine.
The segment, called “Cowpokes,” is a look into how a group of men are coping a year after Hurricane Katrina turned bustling neighborhoods into silent ghost towns. Elizabeth and her crew visit a gay bar on the edge of the devastated ninth ward, “where a group of regulars don’t flinch at the daunting task of rebuilding… one house, one street, and one dance at a time.”
The episode airs on WNET on Tuesday, September 5 at 10:30 pm. Check with In The Life for air dates in other markets.
>On our way out of the multiplex the other day, we noticed the rather demure posters for This Film is Not Yet Rated and a banner instructing us to visit IFC.com to see the posters “they wouldn’t let us show you!” Later, in one of our regular moments of online procrastination, we actually remembered to do so.
We’re not sure, but we assume that the “they” preventing you from seeing these posters in a theater lobby is the MPAA, the motion picture industry’s trade association. And, using this instance as just an example, that might not be an entirely bad thing. While we’re as down on censorship as anyone, we’re not so keen on floating out of some dreamy rom-com to be smacked in the eye with a blazing image of seared flesh. (We should probably come clean with the revelation that branding is one of our own personal squick points.) (Come to think of it, both in the physical and in the marketing sense.)
But once we’ve left the town square and plopped down our $10.50 to see a particular film of our own adult-minded choosing, the determination of which images confront us should be left to the creativity of the filmmaker. And the process of classifying what is considered “adult” needs to be made transparent, so that filmmakers and audiences alike know where the line falls, as well as the how and the who behind that determination.
And that’s where This Film is Not Yet Rated comes in. Directed by Kirby Dick–who holds a permanent place in our heart for the sensitive and engaging Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist–the documentary delves into the whimsically arbitrary MPAA rating system and the power it wields over what we’re ultimately allowed to see on the big screen. Featuring the candid anecdotes of such directors as John Waters, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Kimberly Pierce and Mary Harron, the film is particularly compelling in its look at the discrepancies in the MPAA’s treatment of sex vs. violence and in an apparent aversion to homosexuality and the depiction of female sexual pleasure.
Opening in NYC and Los Angeles tomorrow, This Film is Not Yet Rated rolls out in several cities in the next weeks. Definitely make the effort to see it.
>Join us in welcoming back The Reeler from whatever respite he may have enjoyed in his time away and, while he gets reacclimated, there’s still time to catch up on the havoc that was wrought by a week of guest bloggers filling in for the duration. (Scroll way, way down. Remember, that’s us, down towards the bottom.)
If that’s just too great a wealth of information and insights from the NYC world of cinema and you’re wishing someone would come by and pick out the kinky bits – well, that’s what we’re here for. Speculating on director Roman Polanski’s likely foot fetish, filmmaker Lauren Wissot writes:
Some of the greatest ankles and arches ever to grace the screen appear in loving close up or wary long shot in every film in this master’s oevure. It became a game with us: spot the foot shot. We could hardly wait for The Pianist to be released just for a possible glimpse of Adrien Brody’s bunions.
She and a co-cinephile have put out the call for an editor to help compile the entire range of images into an “experimental meditation” on the topic.
We’re calling first dibs on the final product.
>From director Tony Comstock comes news that his latest documentary, Damon & Hunter, which mixes a couple’s engaging and intimate interview with scenes of them having sex, has met with the ire of the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification and is not to be played in its original form during queerDOC 06, the Sydney-based documentary festival.
After playing to a sell-out crowd and sharing a prize for best documentary at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Damon & Hunter was booked into two screening slots at queerDOC.
Subsequently, though, queerDOC was notified that because Damon & Hunter carries an X classification in Australia, exhibition of the documentary would violate Section 8 of the OFLC’s Film Festival Guidelines and cannot be screened publicly. queerDOC has since applied for an exemption to the ruling and Tony has scrambled to provide them with a heavily edited version of his documentary.
Since we’ve been fortunate enough to have Damon & Hunter among the many fine works under consideration for this year’s CineKink NYC, we were a little curious to see how much of the wonderfully sumptuous piece might remain after the explicit sex – “…no erect penises, no touching of each other’s flacid penises, and no butt cracks” – had been excised.
Fortunately, Tony has posted the abridged version for online viewing.
It’s a pretty quick download.
>Scheduled for October 17-22, 2006, the fourth annual CineKink NYC will feature a carefully-curated program of films and videos that explore and celebrate a wide diversity of sexuality. In addition to screenings, plans for the festival also include a short film competition, audience choice awards, presentations, parties and a gala kick-off fundraiser, to be followed by a national showcase tour.
Billing itself as “the really alternative film festival,” the event is presented by CineKink, an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of kink-positive depictions in film and television. With offerings drawn from both Hollywood and abroad, works presented at CineKink NYC will range from documentary to drama, camp comedy to hot porn and everything in between.
“Our call for entries is running strong and we’re looking forward to another banner round of selections to present at the festival,” said Lisa Vandever, Co-Founder and Director of CineKink. “It’s always invigorating to see the commitment and talent that our filmmakers bring to their works and we’re delighted at the quality and range we’re able to pass along to our audiences.”
Last year’s festival saw Audience Choice Award honors given to ‘Going Under’ (Eric Werthman) for Best Narrative Feature and to ‘Pornology New York’ (Michele Capozzi) for Best Documentary Feature. An Honorable Mention also went to the documentary ‘Original Pride: The Satyrs Motorcycle Club’ (Scott Bloom).
In the shorts competition, juried festival awards went to ‘Moustache’ (Vicki Sugars) for Best Narrative Short, ‘Pup’ (Antonia Kao) for Best Documentary Short, and, tied for the Best Experimental Short award, ‘Harigata: The Alien Dildo That Turned Women Into Sex-Hungry Lesbos’ (Szu Burgess) and ‘Meat’ (Joe Gallant). Honorable Best Mention awards went to ‘Open’ (Teale Failla) and to ‘Sullivan’s Last Call’ (Francesca Rizzo).
The CineKink Tribute, recognizing extraordinary depiction of kink in mainstream film and television, was given to the film ‘Kinsey’ (Fox Searchlight Pictures/Bill Condon, 2004, USA) for “its intimate and moving portrayal of the pioneering sexologist Dr. Alfred Kinsey and the profound impact his research has had on the ways we think about sex.”
Honorable mentions for the CineKink Tribute went to the television series ‘Desperate Housewives’ (ABC) and ‘Dr. 90210’ (E!), and to the movie ‘Wedding Crashers’ (New Line Cinema).
The CineKink program line-up for 2006 will be announced in September.
Further information is available at www.cinekink.com.