We could try to pass it off as brilliant planning, but it was actually fortuitous happenstance that Sissy Stephanie and Sissy Carol, co-stars of the wildly popular CineKink trailer, Sissies Gone Wild!, scheduled an excursion to coincide with CineKink: San Francisco.
Naturally, it's a happenstance we'll happily exploit and we've invited both of the lovelies to join us for an encore presentation of Sissies Gone Wild! and a personal appearance at tonight's screening of Lipsticks & Crinoline, our pan-sexy program of colorful gender frolics. (Come for the gender frolics at 7pm, then stay for a cinematic celebration of female pleasure, Wanton Female Desire, at 9 pm.)
Just as with dating, it might be too much to expect both qualities in one package. And the not-so-mixed reviews don't exactly make a compelling argument for a dash to the cineplex. (Though largely affectionate--"I sort of liked it"--critic Andrew O'Hehir's review also includes the observation that it "...seems like a movie Jim Jarmusch might have started in 1991 and then abandoned because it wasn't going anywhere." Yikes! That's the very fear that has kept us unproductively lodged in our creativity burrow all these many decades.)
But Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, would seem to have enough CineKink-relevant themes to warrant at least a quick go-over--and, who knows, quite possibly a Tribute? We're ever-eager to be happily surprised.
We're a little dubious about how affirmative a depiction one might expect in Choke, the adaptation of the Chuck Pulahniuk novel of the same name, but we have been amused at the trailer's bits of a forced entry roleplay scenario unfolding in the midst of cable news coverage of our nation's pending financial "bail-out."
Here, in a clip from the movie, our haplass, sex-addicted protagonist negotiates the terms of said scenario:
The movie opens tonight, but in the meantime, distributor Fox Searchlight is interested in hearing about your favorite types of roleplay. If you'd like to weigh in--or check in on some of the creative (or not) suggestions thus far--your chance is right here.
Rachel Kramer Bussel, whose previous literary offerings, He's On Top/She's On Top graced the swag bags for the CineKink kick-off party back in February, has a brand, er, spanking new opus available...Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica. And, with her finger ever on the pulse of the latest publishing trends, she's just put out a trailer for the book:
Well, sorta. We're still caught up in processing a long, hot weekend of cavorting in the woods with a bunch of kinksters at Leather Retreat.
For a rough approximation of how we spent our time off - and to while away the yearning moments until our full return - enjoy a nice revisit with Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's 'Caligula,' briefly available again on YouTube and good research fodder the next time you require a costume for a Roman orgytoga party orgy:
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!
In a comprehensive profile on indieWire about the changing landscape of underground festivals in the US, organizers point to new distribution technologies that make many of the works they showcase more readily accessible - a consideration also looming for kinky film festivals, no doubt. But they also question the nebulous definition of the genre itself:
"What is 'underground' film anyway?" wondered Ed Halter, the former director of NYUFF and one of this year's special curators. "The term 'underground' is problematic because most people are under the misconception that 'underground, is synonymous with 'shock' cinema."
In the comments to the article, filmmaker Ralph Ackerman puts the query in to some historical perspective:
I started making experimental films in 1963 and at that time we called it underground cinema because if we showed our films in the public we were always arrested for being obscene etc... Things are so mild now. Kenneth Anger with his trangressive films faced the coops (sic) often."
We're slowly emerging from our immediate post-CineKink NYC coma, which seemed to descend upon us sometime shortly following the wrap of another fabulous - seriously! - AfterGlow!
A bit more coffee, then stay tuned for news on all of the 2008 CineKink award winners, we promise. But meantime, feel free to amuse withself with just one of the year's festival trailers, the ever-popular Lolita & Boymeat Watch "2 Girls, 1 Cup":
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.
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!
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.
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!
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!
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?
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!
As we count down the days until the premiere of CineKink NYC Trailer 2008, we thought we'd dip into the archives and share a few classics. Starting with the beginning...
In this latest from CineKink alum, David Quantic, follow the cut-throat auditions for Showbears, just one of several fantastical cinema-to-Broadway offerings in the works:
Once you're there, rummage around David's YouTube for the rest in his series of trailers for the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival - and then be sure to set your sights on the wonders of his Eargasm (CineKink/2005).
How lucky are we to have a secret fetish that's actually not not safe for work? (Though, come to think of it, such fetish can sometimes make the actual practice of work a little dangerous.)
Tonight's the premiere of Mad Men on AMC. In addition to the previously noted men in suits - as this trailer promises, "...reliable... confident ... and hiding something" - the distance of its early 60s setting will also permit lots of glamourous smoking, drinking and carousing, along with the type of hot, retro lingerie that looks so much better than it generally feels.
As to the retro (or, er, not) rampant bad boy sexism depicted? Let's just try that on as a little winking roleplay and, safeword on the ready - we'll give it a go!
Quite alot of twisted knickers seems to be the result of a new video promoting European filmmaking. A rapid montage of sex scene clips builds and, er, climaxes to the slogan "Let's come together." Granted, the end image of an apparently male-only audience in rapt attention left us a wee bit skeeved, but we suspect much of the reported outrage was piqued by the inclusion of lovers that fall outside of strictly heterosexual and HWP parameters.
Or then again, maybe it's just any excuse for nationalism. Reports The Guardian:
Godfrey Bloom of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party described the film as "cheap, tawdry and tacky" and demanded to know the cost to European taxpayers. "You might say it's appropriate for them to put out films like this," he told the Sun newspaper. "Brussels has been screwing the UK for at least 30 years."
We probably shouldn't take comfort in this, but we're finding it oddly uplifting to know that moralistic posturing isn't restricted solely to this side of the pond.
Who needs another box of stale chocolates anyway? This Valentines' Day, send along a beribboned Sissies Gone Wild greeting and really stand apart from the crowd.