This week I actually got two press releases that turned out to be things I was happy to nonconsensually learn about. One was getting the trailer for director Ramzi Abed‘s upcoming documentary on altporn filmmaking “The New Erotic.” According to IMDB the film is completed, but none of the marketing materials tell me when it’s coming out or where I can find it, but I thought I should share it with you as soon as it landed in my inbox. It features people we know and admire (and in my case, at least one person I love dearly) — Eon McKai, Kimberly Kane, Dave Naz, Vena Virago and more. This is going to be a really important film, and I can’t wait to see it. Here’s a good snip:
THE NEW EROTIC is the first documentary focusing on the fearless erotic artists working in the so-called “altporn” scene, where punks, gallery artists, and visual designers create edgy, pornographic films that fly in the face of conventional eroticism and redefine beauty. Renaming themselves after punk heroes and serial killers, they eschew the previous generation of cosmetically enhanced professional pornstars, instead filming their naturally figured, mostly non-blonde hipster friends in a unique style that borrows its edge from NYC’s Cinema of Transgression and mashes it up against a mumblecore aesthetic with a post-Suicide-Girls/post-American-Apparel sensibility. (…more, halo8.tv)
This is going to be great. The marketing materials are saying that “The New Erotic” is going to be like “The Decline of Western Civilization” for our generation. And I think that’s a pretty bold statement, one I’m not sure I agree with. “Decline” was offensive, outrageous, unapologetic, filthy, it was a call to revolution. It fucked with everything and everyone and was shocking. I would be ecstatic to see a documentary made about the current porn revolution that did exactly that — but it would have to include the hardcore queer/trans indies who are writing the new future of porn with their blood, sweat, tears and come. It would have to show the transgender porn stars being nominated for AVN awards and not being allowed to walk the red carpet. It would have to show the alt and queer porn stars being refused entry to the Vivid Alt party at the porn convention. It would have to get its hands very, very dirty. Still, I know I’m going to love “The New Erotic” and I’ll let you know as soon as it’s available — hopefully I can snag an interview with the director.
This ought to be interesting at the very least. Ramzi Abed has turned out some of the most compelling low-fi sci-fi in the last few years. He’s a pretty gifted filmmaker and Halo-8 as a “lifestyle company” has been turning out some interesting product and championing the open-source and anti-DRM movements.
I kind of agree that the sales pitch for this movie is overstated. It sounds like the alt porn sales pitch circa 2003, when indeed it was something new and edgy. Now in 2010, Suicide Girls is probably the single most successful softcore website and Stoya has the AVN Award for Best New Starlet.
That’s not to say I don’t love me some alt porn (in particular, anything with Stoya!), nor am I saying the alt porn movement didn’t add a breath of fresh air (and some great new talents) to mainstream porn. But “cutting edge” and “revolutionary” it ain’t anymore.
The Halo-8 site says: “Indie studio Halo-8 has slated the documentary for a summer 2010 limited theatrical run followed shortly after by VOD, DVD/Blu-ray release.”
Whoa, looks rad! Keep us posted for sure!
Cool. Glad to see Margie Schnibbe in this.