GAYLETTER

I was forced to see 50 Shades of Grey recently (not quite like that…) and the theatre was full. I couldn’t believe it. Everything was so tame. I’ve done more extreme stuff in a library. Thankfully I can wash that experience away this weekend, because thanks to the fine people at Pornhub, we officially have the first ever NYC Porn Film Festival. About time, right? I assumed we had at least 5 here already.

According to the producers, “the festival will present how emerging, hip, tech savvy producers engage their audiences through these new technologies, as well as showcase innovative ways of working in porn.” Does that mean we are close to getting Snapchat porn legitimized? The future is so exciting. I am getting a semi just thinking about it…

This isn’t some guy who’s setup a projector playing Pornhub’s best rated (though they encourage you to make a playlist online), it’s a wonderfully curated selection of emerging talent reflecting social and cultural trends in the industry. Films exploring fetishes I didn’t know existed (well… kinda), documentaries about the trans sex workers of Paris, talks about “Porn Studies” as an academic category, something about Golden Showers, and a conversation with Cindy Gallop discussing how to make money out of porn today. #sextech

We really have cum far, haven’t we?

Image courtesy of Barbara Hammer 16mm from Dyketactics

Image: Barbara Bell / Graphic Sexual Horror

The festival runs from Feb 27 – March 1 at Secret Project Robot, 389 Melrose Street, Brooklyn, NY. …

Gay erotic films are having something of a comeback in indie cinema. From Antonio Da Silva’s eye-opening, voyeuristic documentaries to Travis Mathew’s complex, intimate portrayals of sex and relationships, gay erotic cinema is no longer simply confined to Andy Warhol’s lusty depictions of Factory boys. Further proof of this paradigm shift: artist/model/performer/director extraordinaire Damien Moreau. Having performed in BDSM films for Kinkmen.com, Moreau is certainly no stranger to X-rated movies, but it’s his artful film projects that are working to dismantle the negative stereotypes held about both pornography and erotic cinema. Take Moreau’s 2014 short film Kangourou for example: depicting a brief, passing interaction between two men on a train that hurtles one of them into a hot, kinky fantasy, the black-and-white short is artful in its simplicity and transgressive in its presentation, providing a new spin on an old genre.

Moreau’s latest project, Oh Boy, is something of a natural extension of Kangourou. Comprised of a film series separated into chapters that each focus on an individual man and his sexuality (with some overlap between chapters), Oh Boy is already an innovative, promising new addition to erotic cinema in form alone. In a recent interview with Vice, Moreau explained how the series’ narratives and visuals are what make Oh Boy such a unique cinematic experience that is separate from, though clearly indebted to, pornography. An added bonus: Moreau chose to include both cisgender and transgender men in the series, covering a very welcome, broader spectrum of male sexuality. …

If someone tells you to go see a Reese Witherspoon film you have a right to be skeptical. Her recent filmography doesn’t scream “must see!” However I ask that you withhold your Witherspoonian biases for one moment. Wild, her most recent film, is really good. It’s based on the Cheryl Strayed memoir of the same name and tells the story of a young woman whose life spirals out of control after the death of her wonderfully adorable mother, played by Laura Dern. Cheryl is married, but she’s out every night fucking random dudes, and eventually shooting heroin. As a hail Mary, last ditch attempt to save herself, she decides to spend what little money she has on camping equipment so she can hike the Pacific Crest Trail…alone. The trail starts at the border of Mexico and ends at the border of Canada. It takes about 3 months and exposes you to pretty much every climate you can think of.

Directed by Dallas Buyer’s Club’s Jean-Marc Vallée, with a screenplay by the wonderfully talented Nick Hornby, Wild is pretty much custom made for me. It’s a tale of redemption and triumph over adversity, set in the woods, with a strong female lead — I was bawling my eyes out from the opening scene, but not in a bad way. I love traveling and love travel films. I have long known that changing your surroundings is a powerful way to change your brain, (basically seeing new things forces your brain to build new neural pathways which weakens those older destructive ones (it’s science!)). …

Stories focusing on male prostitutes have a long history in film. Ranging from Gregg Araki’s devastating Mysterious Skin to Gus Van Sant’s classic My Own Private Idaho, the male prostitute in film is often seductive, fearless, and a little dejected — characters rife for both adventure and tragedy. Writer and director Nick Corporon (of this year’s excellent short film Barbie Boy) is adding a new iteration of the character for upcoming film Retake. Focusing on middle-aged, lonely Jonathan, the film follows him as he hires a young male prostitute (Luke Pasqualino of Skins and The Borgias) to accompany him on a road trip from San Francisco to the Grand Canyon. Insisting that the prostitute take on an invented character, “Brandon,” it quickly becomes clear that Jonathan is trying to relive his past while “Brandon” is trying to escape his own. An examination of “love, loss, identity, and the delicate balance of moving toward an uncertain future,” Retake is already promising to be a gripping heartbreaker.

In order to make the film a reality, Corporon and his team have taken to Kickstarter to crowdsource for the project. With incentives ranging from signed DVDs and postcards to polaroid cameras, walk-ons and speaking roles, and dinner parties with the filmmakers, now’s definitely a good time to help fund the film. There’s only a week left so go support some LGBT indie filmmaking before it’s too late.

Watch a concept teaser for the film below:

Help fund Retake on Kickstarter here. …

Critic, playwright, mother, lover, one of the most controversial writers and social critics, campaigner for civil rights, anti-war activist, one of the most intelligent women in America, writer of 17 books, lover of both men and women — Yes I am referring to none other than Susan Sontag, America’s last great intellectual rockstar. The woman just could not stay away from conflict. She so poignantly said, “I guess I go to war because I think it’s my duty to be in as much contact with reality as I can be and war is a tremendous reality in our world.” How right she is. Thankfully HBO is airing a brilliant documentary this month on Susan aptly called, Regarding Susan Sontag that chronicles her life with archival footage of herself and those that loved and respected her with her own words read by actress Patricia Clarkson.

On writing, Susan explains, “It’s a way of paying attention to the world, you’re just an instrument for tuning into as much reality as you can.” Often she criticized that reality as she found critics to be the most interesting writers of our time. The accolades are many — coming from some of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century, many who are featured in this smart, snappy documentary. She is worthy of the praise, and this film is worthy of your time.

The film premieres Dec. 8 at 9:00PM on HBO and airing several dates in December. …

This is a serious and moving film about the AIDS quilt, and it is only fitting that it will be released on December 1 on iTunes — World AIDS Day — so we will not soon forget that this epidemic is still in our midst. The film is about this extraordinary international art project born in the eighties out of a need to physically express grief for those passing from AIDS and to wage a worldwide battle for greater treatment and understanding for the disease. I went to Washington D.C. in 1987 when the quilt was first laid down in front of the capitol on the National Mall and will NEVER forget its visual and social impact. In brief, “The Last One examines how stigma exacerbated and still fuels a disease that currently infects 34 million men and women and children around the globe including 50,000 new infections a year in the U.S. alone.” Wow, that’s a lot of numbers to digest, let me add this last one — 30 million lives have been lost to AIDS.

Remembrance, Warmth, Comfort and Love are the themes the quilt was born out of, a beautiful graveyard of sorts, each panel like a tombstone eloquently remembering one who was lost to AIDS. Please take a moment to remember those who perished and those still battling the disease and watch this film, it will give back to you ten fold.

Available on iTunes to rent or buy …