by Lauren Wissot
If there was some sort of irony in the fact that I was late to CineKink’s opening night gala because I was stuck at work, it didn’t hit me at the time. When you’re covering a proudly smut-filled film festival, tardiness due to a last-minute cross-dressing session at a house of domination is a rather bland excuse. Fortunately, I was able to catch half the set of the downright hilarious musical act The Wet Spots, with their repertoire ranging from an anti-foot fetish number (“Don’t lick my toes!â€) to an anti-Bush country ditty about contraband dildos in Texas. And thus it all began on the perfect note. After all, the biggest difference between what passes for sex in mainstream cinema and what we lifestyle perverts do is we have a sense of humor about it. They fuck, while we – to use an S&m term – “play.â€
Nor is it just the preponderance of black leather and velvet that causes the CineKink crowd to stand apart. The very first thing I noticed was the friendliest, most excited to be there and will bend over backwards to help you, volunteer staff I’ve ever encountered at a festival. Does director Lisa Vandever recruit from a well-trained slave pool? I wondered. And do they do dishes? And speaking of this creative force named Lisa Vandever, I was surprised to learn she also directed the trailer for her fest – one of my favorite “short films†of the program. “Sissies Gone Wild†is a brilliant parody of the “Girls Gone Wild†series, replacing the beauty pageant bimbos with middle-aged men in JonBenet drag. I especially loved the scene in which the “sissies†(old enough to have served in WWII?) send up the flag raising at Iwo Jima in pigtails and frilly panties. Take that, Clint Eastwood!
On a more serious note, the panel discussion “The State of Smut: NYC†in which NYC’s top pornographers dissected their craft, was most revealing for what it didn’t reveal. How does a pornographer survive outside of Cali’s Porn Valley? There are as many different answers as there are hardcore Jim Jarmusch’s. In fact, if one took out all references to blowjobs and double penetration, the symposium simply could have been entitled “The State of Indie Filmmaking: NYC.â€
Fortunately, filmmakers of all levels and deviant stripes are represented at CineKink. Vandever’s an “equal opportunity curator†and her shorts program “Power Plays†alone represented every variety of gender, sexuality and kink. Where else can one see a lineup featuring a leather queens’ “puppy party,†a F-T-M transsexual daddy/boy duo, and a run-of-the-mill (kinky) straight couple? Not at Sundance, that’s for sure. Nor are the sissies given their fair share of the lollipops out west. At the closing night awards ceremony, I spotted one of the trailer girls – looking like a six-foot tall refugee from Alice in Wonderland – being greeted by a fan with “I really admire your work.†When I spoke to her later she revealed that she’d designed the $645 pink satin dress she was wearing, which also had been named after her. I guess sometimes the Academy’s red carpet is right under your feet.
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Lauren Wissot is a screenwriter, film journalist, critic and author specializing in S&M and male hustlers. She is the author of Under My Master’s Wings.
film, movies
