Signal boost: Fundraising for Shine Louise Houston’s SNAPSHOT

Shine Louise Houston, the Director and Producer at Pink and White Productions, is definitely one of my personal heroes (and a friend, though we haven’t seen each other in like a million years). One of my all-time favorite quotes in our contemporary sex revolution came when Houston said, “There is power in creating images, and for a woman of color and a queer to take that power. I don’t find it exploitative; I think it’s necessary.”

I’ve had the privilege over the years to be able to support Houston’s projects, sometimes with really hot exclusives, and I’m ridiculously excited to find out that Houston is working on a new film: SNAPSHOT. Announced Monday, the crowdfunding just began here on Indiegogo, and I strongly recommend throwing even just $5 in the kitty.

I’m Shine Louise Houston, and I’ve been creating erotic queer cinema through my company Pink & White Productions for almost a decade. My films have screened across the globe, have received numerous awards, and appear frequently in academic work and sexuality textbooks. In my films, I work to create an alternate vision of what’s sexy, one that is more reflective of the queer communities and communities of color that I identify with.

This summer I’m taking a big directorial leap by making my first independently produced feature film, SNAPSHOT. It will be my 5th feature film, but the first that Pink & White will have full control over.

(…) Growing up queer, I was always frustrated with the coming out stories I was hearing and seeing: there were so few queers of color, the representations’ idea of ‘sexy’ wasn’t mine, narratives were formulaic and stereotypical, and the production quality left a lot to be desired. SNAPSHOT is an attempt to provide a different coming out narrative in a tone that reflects some of my most profound filmic influences. It involves two women of color as its main characters. The character whose “coming out” is in focus is in her late 30s — and her coming out has to do more with the intricacies of new desires than with gender.

There’s much more to read on SNAPSHOT’S crowdfunding page, including its timeline and goals. But it’s the personal text from Shine that’s a must-read; it’ll give you goosebumps, make you smile, and if you’re like me, a bit of both while shouting “viva la revolucion!” Also, in San Francisco style, SNAPSHOT is about a murder.

SNAPSHOT is an erotic suspense thriller that draws inspiration from film classics such as Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Antonioni’s Blow Up.

As a queer love story, SNAPSHOT doesn’t shy away from portraying explicit sexuality, which gives context to the characters’ intimacy and exists as a key element of my storytelling. Popular examples of movies that include realistic sex are Shortbus and the lesbian film, Blue is the Warmest Color. My pornographic aesthetics draw heavily from Radley Metzger. Pink & White Productions films show the mechanics of intimate sexuality, and uncensored portrayals of genuine pleasure, which is what our company is best known for.

Donate to SNAPSHOT! Help make it happen! I really want to see this film!

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