I've got your stimulus package, right here!

Speaking of Sarah Palin... here she is, appearing in last year's festival trailer for CineKink NYC:



Okay, now... go vote!

Best of NYC!

A lovely gift greeted our return from Berlin this week... the realization that we'd been selected by the Village Voice for their annual "Best of NYC" issue!



We're naturally very honored that the publication has distinguished us as being the city's Best Way to Watch Smutty Movies:

If you're wary of catching an Xtube virus and are looking for cleaner digs than whatever's left of Times Square's naughty picture joints, CineKink NYC is there for you. Each February, this festival provides the means for you to ditch the laptop and the privacy of your own home, and enjoy kinky film the way it's meant to be enjoyed—in the company of strangers, of course.

Of course! (Though if you'd like to bring a friend along, that's perfectly fine, too.)

Read along here for the rest of the accolades...

Special sneak preview...American Swing

The Museum of Sex and Magnolia Pictures invite CineKinksters to a special advance screening of American Swing, the new documentary about the rise and fall of the infamous NYC swing club, Plato's Retreat...

Monday, March 23rd @ 7:30PM

Museum of Sex
233 Fifth Avenue, NYC

RSVP required to:
sylvia@ddanielspr.net

Please note ‘CineKink” in your RSVP – we have a limited number of seats available, so act quickly!

The year was 1977 and New York City burned. As the metropolis hurtled into bankruptcy, the city's nightlife hit unprecedented heights. In midtown, the ultra-exclusive Studio 54 was a cocaine-fueled celebrity playhouse. Downtown, at the spartan CBGB's, punk rockers set out to destroy everything Pop. Meanwhile, in the basement of the prestigious Ansonia building on the conservative Upper West Side, Plato's Retreat opened its doors to ordinary couples who came to dance, to swim, and...to swap.

Includes a post-screening Q&A with co-directors Mathew Kaufman and Jon Hart.

American Swing will open in New York on March 27th at the Quad Cinema and in Los Angeles on April 3 at the Sunset 5.

You be the judge!

You put all that time in the seats, be sure to let us know what you think!

Our CineKink community on B-Side gives you the ability to rate your favorites (and, though hard to fathom, not-so-favorites) and leave reviews on the films you saw throughout the festival.

These reviews are keenly anticipated by our filmmakers, fellow audience members, other festival programmers and all of us at CineKink, as we use them to help determine and promote bookings for our upcoming tour appearances.

All you need to take part is an email address, just register here and pass along your thoughts.

At the movies...

Come join us...!

CineKink-at-a-Glance!

We hope you're using your time to rest up and get ready for the festivities, as CineKink NYC is set for its return appearance February 24th to March 1st, with a jam-packed schedule full of things you won't want to miss.

Tuesday, February 24
8:00 pm - Kick-Off Gala & Fundraiser

Wednesday, February 25
6:45 pm - Sex Positive
9:00 pm - MindFLESH

Thursday, February 26
6:45 pm - Whips & Restraint
9:00 pm - Lipsticks & Crinoline

Friday, February 27
6:45 pm - The Workshop
9:00 pm - Wanton Female Desire
11:10 pm - Graphic Sexual Horror

Saturday, February 28
12:30 pm - Kinky
2:30 pm - Happy Endings?
4:30 pm - Marta's Sex Tape
6:45 pm - Twisted Knickers
9:00 pm - The Auteur
11:10 pm - Bring It! (adult cinema showcase)

Sunday, March 1
6:00 pm - Awards Celebration
8:30 pm - AfterGlow Party!

For all the salacious details, visit http://www.cinekink.bside/films/ and
click on the films and events like to know more about.

Coming soon!

As you're hopefully well aware by now, CineKink NYC is getting set for its sixth annual appearance February 24-March 1, 2009, again bringing you a specially-curated program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality.

While we fine-tune and finesse the last details of the program line-up, to be announced very soon, be sure to block out your calendar so you don't miss a single second of the CineKinky wonders!

Tuesday, February 24 - 8 pm/Kick-Off Gala

2/25 - 6:45 pm/+ Screenings @ Anthology Film Archives
2/26 - 6:45 pm/+ Screenings @ Anthology Film Archives
2/27 - 6:45 pm/+ Screenings @ Anthology Film Archives
2/28 - 12:30 pm/+ Screenings @ Anthology Film Archives

Sunday, March 1
6 pm/Awards Celebration
8 pm/AfterGlow Party

More info...soon!

Farewell, Pioneer...

Somehow escaping notice in our post-election haze was the closing of the Pioneer Theater, a venerable Lower East Side institution and home to our monthly CineKink screening series for a brief but happy duration.

Reportedly another victim of rising real estate costs in the neighborhood, the theater held its final screening on Halloween night and a send-off gathering last Friday. While we didn't make it to the last shindig, we're proud to have a prominent presence in the Pioneer's round-up of testimonials, an inscription left by one of our movie-goers, Maritess, posted here verbatim since we're not sure how long it will last anywhere else:

Saw "Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of Orgasm" in the "Cine-kink" festival with other "cutting edge" films like..."My Pussy is Magic" (WTF?) and other questionably artistic films. Thank God for the Pioneer Theater, this was Sprinkle's NYC movie premiere, which is surprising because it was such a great film, made in 2004.

A few of the artists in the festival (except for Annie Sprinkle--boo!) held a Q and A afterwards, which was amusing because the audience was clearly stimulated, people shifting in seats, couples making out.While in this state, I thanked GOD for the surprising lack of super-creepy guys watching this flick alone, the audience was comprised of intellectual pervs like me, with a facade of decorum and sophistication, masking public porno watching with academic curiosity.

Although it is a tiny theater, the seats were in great shape, cushy, clean, so unlike what I would expect a clearly non profit independent theater to be like.

The staff is soooo nice, laid back and friendly. Even the concession stand looks friendly, ,mostly because it is not the cookie cutter concession stands of the corporate movie cineplexes. Hooray for independent film houses!

Hooray--and adieu!

Slap on your leathers and come on down!

CineKink @ New York Leather Weekend - TONIGHT!
As part of NYLW, a weekend-long celebration of NYC's almost-back-to-burgeoning leather scene, we're presenting 'Give and Take,' a kinky collection of shorts that probe, prod and play with the dynamics of sexual control and submission. Assume the position!

Date/Time:
Friday, October 10 - 8 pm

Location:
LGBT Community Center
208 W. 13th Street (bet. 7/8th), NYC

More info and full program line-up is here!

Come tryst with us!

CineKink's Tawdry Summer Tryst!

Tuesday, August 5th - 8 pm
The Red Room @ KGB Complex
85 E. 4th Street (@ 2nd Ave)

It's our fifth anniversary and we'll be mixing it up at The Red Room to celebrate! Cozy up to a new best friend, sink back into air-conditioned comfort and heat up with CineKink's anniversary revisit with a few of our favorite, recent hook-ups ...

TEAT BEAT OF SEX (Signe Baumane)
Three animated lectures on sex.

SALT (Campbell Farquhar)
A shared passion for food - and other things.

HIGHWAY AMAZON (Ronnie Cramer)
A meet up with bodybuilder Christine Fetzer, who earns her living traveling the country and wrestling men on hotel room beds.

IN YER ROOM (Bobby McNasty)
Ol' Blue Eyes never sang it quite like this.

THE PARTY (Jessica Rotondi)
A guy drags his girlfriend to a craigslist "Make-out Party," but soon discovers it wasn't quite what he expected.

HIGH INFIDELITY (David Hansen)
The filmmaker examines his own ideas about sex and love by venturing into the world of swingers, where partners are interchangeable and have virtually nothing to hide.

and

THE GOOD GIRL (Erika Lust)
Alex is a high-powered exec who thinks about sex a lot, but rarely acts upon her desires and never takes the initiative. Until now, that is.

Cocktails to follow, downstairs at KGB Bar.

More info and advance tickets - highly recommended - are here!

Boom-chucka-oy!

What do you get when you mix madcap Jewish humor with the Superstars of Seventies porn?

Find out when CineKink proudly sponsors a Kinky Jews presentation of A Touch of Genie, director Joe Sarno's long-lost tribute to a boyhood spent at raucous Lower East Side comedies (and an adulthood spent writing and directing some of the finest adult films to ever grace a grindhouse screen).

From the After Hours Cinema description of their recently restored classic: "Poor Melvin! His meddling mother is making him nutz. His only relief is the covert afternoons he spends at New York's notorious Times Square porn theaters. One day, Melvin discovers a genie in a bottle. What does he wish? To become his favorite porno superstars and indulge in wild sexual adventures with the sexiest women in sex film."

Starring Doug Stone as Melvin Finkelfarb and Ultramax - the First Lady of New York Porn! - as his yiddishe mama, along with over-the-top performances by porno greats Harry Reems, Tina Russell and Eric Edwards!

A Touch of Genie

Thursday June 5, 2008

Bar Opens: 9:00 PM
Film Begins: 10:00 PM

Q&A with Doug Stone following the film

Location: KGB Bar, 85 E. 4th St. at 2nd Ave., NYC

Admission: $18, with advanced RSVP, $20 at the door
(Two drink vouchers included with admission)

RSVP/More Info: contact @ kinkyjews dot com

Of Ilsa and her ilk

A new documentary, Stalags, examines the pornographic paperbacks, featuring colorful depictions of buxom SS officers bending captives to their will, that cropped up in Israel around the time of the Holocaust trials in the early 1960s.

Claims by Max Mosley to the contrary notwithstanding - and as a subsequent slew of sexploitative titles will attest - Nazi iconography can pack a huge libidinous wollop. In a comprehensive review of the film, Lauren Wissot discusses the film's powerful dissecting of the phenomenon:

Simply put, this film is a revelation. Like the best investigative journalists, Libsker patiently sifts through each and every contradiction to discover that something that would seem so horrifically paradoxical on its face proves ultimately inevitable beneath the surface. How could Israeli Nazi pornography even exist, let alone be a widespread phenomenon? Stalags answers, “How could it not?”

Stalags open tonight at NYC's Film Forum and runs through 4/22.

Just 7,999,999 stories to go...

Many congratulations to CineKink alum Audacia Ray, whose new sexuality blog, Naked City, debuted this week at The Village Voice. While Audacia predicts that the blog will evolve over time, one feature that's already up and running is Naked City TV, a weekly video show intended to "document and explore the personal and professional lives of people for whom sexuality is central."

This week's episode, a profile of Porno Jim (CineKink '08/Hookin' Up) and his live, porn-clip show, manages to capture both the engaging frenetics of Jim's evangelistic presentations - and a few graphic moments of live-action Smurf-on-Smurf pornography:

CineKink NYC Photo Round-Up

Lest we take as long with getting these photos out as we spent on finally putting together our wedding album, herewith a few images from CineKink NYC 2008!

First up, from photographic phenom Stacie Joy, some shots of the CineKink Kick-Off Gala.


Lux Alptraum and Molly Crabapple


JZ Bich, Dizzy Swank, Cherry Bomb, Ignacio Rivera

Here's more of the set - or visit filmmaker Leah Meyerhoff's blog for another vantage.

And a few candids from around the festival taken by Viviane for Viviane's Sex Carnival:



Boymeat and Lolita Wolf


Cory Silverberg, Jamye Waxman & Candida Royalle

And back to Stacie Joy, for still more of the CineKink scene:


Tanya Bezreh and Rachel Kramer Bussel


CineKink's "Women Behind the Lens" panel

Including proof positive for the parents back home, no neglect - our birthday was celebrated indeed!


Lisa Vandever's birthday!

And the award goes to...

As promised - though slightly delayed by the lingering and distracting effects of our Afterglow - a variety of CineKink NYC awards were announced at our awards celebration on Sunday night!

AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS - "CineKink Choice"
CineKink Choice awards, which go to feature-length works in competition during the festival, were determined by audience balloting at the close of each eligible work's screening. The 2008 award winners are:

CineKink Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature:
"Call Me Troy" (Scott Bloom, 2007, USA, 100 minutes)

CineKink Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature:
"Viva" (Anna Biller, 2006, USA, 120 minutes)

CineKink Choice Award for Best Experimental Feature:
"Silken Sleeves" (Maria Beatty, 2006, USA, 50 minutes)

CineKink Choice Award - Honorable Mention:
"Triple X Selects: The Best of Lezsploitation"
(Michelle Johnson, 2007, USA, 48 minutes)


JURY AWARD FOR BEST SHORTS - "CineKink Best"
CineKink Best awards, which go to short works in competition during the festival, were determined by jury deliberation and ranking. The 2008 award winners are:

CineKink Best Narrative Short:
"Who's the Top?" (Jennie Livingston, 2005, USA, 22 minutes)

CineKink Best Documentary Short:
"Coming Out Spanko" (Tanya Bezreh, 2008, USA, 15 minutes)

CineKink Best Animated Short:
"Teat Beat of Sex" (Signe Baumane, 2007, USA, 4 minutes)

CineKink Best Experimental Short:
"Closer" (Aitor Echeverria, 2007, Spain, 7 minutes)
-tie-
"Salt" (Campbell Farquhar, 2006, New Zealand, 3 minutes)

Honorable Mention/Best Experimental Short:
"Crossing" (HP Comings, 2007, USA, 19 minutes)

CineKink Honorable Best Mentions:
"Office Mobius" (Seung Hyung Lee & Seungil Hwang, 2007, USA, 5 minutes)
"Something About Nadia" (Erika Lust, 2007, Spain, 21 minutes)
"Wash Me Clean" (Michael Immerman, 2008, USA, 30 minutes)

This year's jury included Thor Stockman, creator and presenter of the popular film clip program "S/M at the Movies," Viviane, ring-leader of the sex blog, "Viviane's Sex Carnival, and Bill Woods, a film festival programmer and curator of the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives.


SPECIAL FESTIVAL AWARD FOR ARTISTIC INNOVATION - "CineKink Select"
"Schwarzwald" (Richard Kimmel, 2007, USA, 59 minutes)


FESTIVAL AWARD FOR EXTRAORDINARY DEPICTION OF KINK & SEX IN MAINSTREAM FILM & TELEVISION - "CineKink Tribute"
Recognizing extraordinary depiction of kink and sex in mainstream film and television, the annual CineKink Tribute was presented to:

"Shortbus" (2006, USA, 106 minutes)
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Screenwriter: John Cameron Mitchell
Cast: Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Raphael Barker, Jay Brannan, Peter Stickles and Justin Bond.
Producers: Howard Gertler, John Cameron Mitchell and Tim Perell
Executive Producer: Wouter Barendrecht and Alexis Fish
Distributor: ThinkFilm

CineKink Tribute Honorable Mentions (aka The CineKink Nod):
"Lust, Caution" (Focus Features)
"The Oprah Winfrey Show - 237 Reasons to Have Sex"
"Zoo" (ThinkFilm)

Many thanks and congratulations to this year's CineKink award winners - and to all of our uber-talented filmmakers!

Activism, exploration and a girl-girl double-header!

Really, what else is there?

Up at CineKink tonight, first at 7 pm, from CineKink award-winner Scott Bloom ("Original Pride" Audience Choice, CineKink/2005), it's the New York premiere of CALL ME TROY, an inspirational and moving tribute to gay activist and spiritual leader, Reverend Troy Perry. Perhaps best known as the founder of the Metropolitan Community Church - the first church to recognize the spiritual needs of the gay community - Perry has long been on the front lines in leading the charge for equality and protections for all. And, a proud leatherman, he's also been an unwavering proponent for the God-given right to embrace and explore our sexuality - just exactly as we are.

More info and tickets!




Friday/9:15
At 9:15 PM, SUSAN FOR NOW is a first-person account of a woman reclaiming her sexual freedom after a ten-year period of self-imposed celibacy. Following the filmmaker's personal quest through the sex-positive community in Seattle and into the world of sadomasochism, the film also provides insights into the hearts and minds of articulate and sincere individuals from every walk of life, and how they practice BDSM in a consensual and responsible manner. Also playing is THE LEATHERMAN, in which Norwegian S/M activist Svein Skeid takes to the streets (and dungeons) of Oslo, and the world premiere of F/F, a visit to Folsom Street and beyond with three-time-CineKink alum, Charles Lum!

More info and tickets!



Friday/11:15
And at 11:15 PM, it's SEX MANNEQUIN and SUPERFREAK, a shape-shifting, body-swapping double-header of girl-girl adventures. First up, from Maria Beatty, a mannequin comes alive to the stroke and kiss of her mistress, ready to passionately serve - and to take - in a variety of kinky ways. And then, from Shine L. Houston, the lascivious spirit of a certain funk singer crashes a girl-girl party, inhabiting the bodies of its participants and creating much erotic mayhem.

More info and tickets!

Hey, kids, it's exploitation night!

We're just getting started - still plenty of time to jump on board – and tonight at CineKink it’s a hot double-bill of steamy exploitation!

First up on Thursday, at 7:00 pm, it's TRIPLE X SELECTS: THE BEST OF LEZSPLOITATION, an international feast of lesbian-exploitation highlights from the 1960s and '70s, presented in all of their notoriously twisted glory. Accented by music reflecting the era and featuring a wacked-out scientific commentary, a compilation of selections from over twenty films brings together and re-appropriates Swedish wildcats, Italian lesbionic nuns, frisky inmates in South American prisons, Euro vampires - and a vast assortment of other Sapphic grindhouse frolics. Plays with the kinky shorts PILLOW GIRL and HIGHWAY AMAZON, along with the world premiere of three-time-CineKink alum T. Arthur Cottam's DIRTY WORDS: THE LETTER C!

More info and tickets: right here!

Then, at 9 PM, it's VIVA, the sordid tale of a bored housewife who gets swept up in the sexual revolution, a highly stylized film that draws on classic exploitation cinema for its look, characters and story-line. Saturated to the hilt with vibrant color and exquisitely detailed in its depiction of the period and the genre, it follows the adventures of Barbi who, abandoned by her perfect Ken-doll husband, is dragged out on the town and into trouble by her "women's lib"-spouting girlfriend. An innocent in a sea of wolves, Barbi becomes "Viva" and quickly learns a lot more than she ever thought she wanted to know about the wild 1970s - nudists, swingers, hippies, orgies and lesbians - oh, my!

More info and tickets - and check out that trailer!

CineKink kicks off... Tuesday!

Put on your shiny finery and come help us kick off the fifth annual CineKink NYC in proper style!

A pansexual celebration of epic proportions, in addition to music, performances, free cocktails and a kinky fundraising raffle, our opening night gala will feature screenings of these special cinematic wonders:

SCHWARZWALD
A rich, modern tapestry combining elements of Druidic ritual with the passionate, leather-clad goings-on that transpire at NYC's annual Black Party, Schwarzwald follows the travails of the Black Prince as he is pursued through the woods and kidnapped by the nefarious underlings of the conniving Black Queen. Starring Buck Angel, the world famous female-to-male transsexual porn star, along with a cast of literal thousands, this is a sumptuous visual feast. And, featuring a continuous mix of music, truly the movie you can dance to! (Or not - remember, "whatever you're into!")











plus!
TEAM QUEEN
The best of New York burlesque in a gender-bending, fire-breathing, tassel-twirling, post-punk rock 'n roll prom!









and

A DOG'S TALE
Sensuous and layered, a black-and-white reverie on control and submission, longing and desire.









Featured performers for the evening include:

Dizzy Swank - putting the burly in burlesque !!!
JZ Bich – gender queer diva !!!
Ignacio Rivera – artist & activist !!!
Cherry Bomb – the queen of cream !!!
Jessica Delfino - ribald chanteuse !!!


Plus, a special raffle to benefit the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom!

Prizes include:
* An exclusive Schwarzald-edition ticket package to the Black Party!

* Complimentary weekend registration for Dark Odyssey's upcoming WinterFire!


Tuesday, February 26th - 8:00 pm

Location:
Taj, 48 West 21st Street, NYC

Admission:
$20 door/$15 advance; students/seniors $12, advance only.

More info & tickets are here!

The Sissies ride again!

Nearing the end of our count-down of CineKink trailers redux, we'd be most remiss to overlook these petticoated crowd-pleasers!



From CineKink NYC 2006, again our many thanks to on-screen phenoms - Sissy Carol, Sissy Stephanie and Sissy Terri - and to the editorial genius, Steve Ovenden, for bringing our tender creative visions into such vivid existence.

And perhaps at CineKink NYC 2008, a chance to see the Sissies again - but this time as celebrities in our midst?

Happy Valentine's Day, you hora!

As we continue to count down the trailers to CineKink NYC 2008, this entry, You, Hora!, is from "the wedding year" series of 2005. Also referred to by our sometimes better half as "the year you kinda just phoned in the trailers."

Hey, you try to plan a wedding and a film festival to fall within six weeks of each other!