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SinCiné
Erotic Filmfest
The second
installation of the erotic film festival SinCiné CineKink took
place over three days in mid-April and screened 20 films, ranging from
three-minute shorts to 90-minute documentaries, from “art films” to
animation, and awarded prizes to five filmmakers. The producer of the
festival, Melissa Ulto, is a videographer, video artist and VJ herself.
The event also featured burlesque by some of New York City’s sauciest
dancers and casual cocktails in the elegant cabaret setting of The
Gallery at The Gershwin.
On opening night, guests were treated to spicy hors d’oeuvres courtesy
of Sylvia’s Soul Food in Harlem and they washed them down with Sassy
Raspberry Cosmo drink specials. The theme was “Sublime and Subliminal”
and the screenings started with Faiyaz Jafri’s 3-D animated short
“Helen of Troy.” Holly Dagger’s digital eye candy short “Neuroscape”
followed, a dreamy, goddess-centric pastiche of stellar imagery. Both
filmmakers fielded questions from the audience. “Pornographic
Apathetic,” a six-minute satire directed by T. Arthur Cottam poked fun
at bad porn dialogue and had everyone cracking up till the mood segued
to sexy with Juneyup Yi’s “Busy,” a lovely nine-minute black-and-white
piece about infidelity. “Touched,” by Chandler Pohl, spotlighted a
chronic masturbator and “Pornoqatsi,” by The Bengala (Gala Verdugo and
Benjamin Tischer) strung together porn clips in an amusing manner,
accompanied by a Phillip Glass soundtrack. After another 3-D animated
short by Faiyaz Jafri, the Rubik’s Cube-like “Music Box,” Jeffrey Lei’s
32-minute “documentary” “Dick Ho, Asian Male Porn Star,” explored a
purported Asian adult film legend from the golden age of porn. With
convincing testimonial recollections about the elusive stud from Annie
Sprinkle, Sharon Mitchell and Kay Parker, aka Aunt Peg, the film pokes
fun at Asian male sexuality. The burlesque stylings of Dottie Lux,
Roxie Del Negro and Scooter Pie added a little bit of T&A to the
evening’s entertainment.
Monday evening began with the exuberant “Freedom Sea,” a plushy romp in
the park with director Missy Galore and her furry friends, accompanied
by her musical stylings. “Flapper? (I Hardly Knew Her!)” followed, a
nine-minute erotic comedy “period piece” by Emily Sweeney that gave us
a little girl-girl action. Yusuke TL Iwasaki’s “Fluid” examined a
bisexual love triangle and the emotional pitfalls of an open
relationship. David Finkelstein’s “All Love Is Sweet” was a 10-minute
experimental art film of computer effects, sighs and music, all of
which added up to an erotically evocative aural experience. The final
film was “Womb Raider,” directed by Randolph Scott. It was a 90-minute
pseudo-satire of “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” complete with B-level
Playboy models. Lauren Hays played Cara Loft and emoted about as much
as the ancient stone icons the characters were in search of. Clearly,
an impressive amount of money was spent on costumes and locations, but
between the lousy dialogue and lackluster acting, the end result is
laughable. And it just figures that this is the one film out of the
entire festival that’s actually received mainstream exposure—if you
call an adult cable channel mainstream. Monday night’s burlesque acts
included Nasty Canasta and Gigi La Femme.
Closing night kicked off with “Saliva” by Pandora Castelli. This short
examined the shortcomings of a frustrated husband’s attempt to satisfy
his wife’s sexual needs. Rene H. Hernandez’s “A Dark Tomorrow” was a
15-minute study of the dangers of online dating and the eventual
comeuppance of the evil sexual predator. This entertainingly dark
morality tale couples sex and violence to alarming effect. “Good
Feather,” directed by Tiffany Doesken, is a lovely black and white art
film that is more sensual than sexual, but is an engaging piece of eye
candy. “Night Moves,” a 50-minute documentary on the Tampa Nightmoves
convention, directed by Aaron Wells, provided an alternatingly
hilarious and oddly mundane behind-the-scenes look at this annual porn
star sextravaganza. The final film of the festival was Elizabeth
Elson’s “Born In A Barn,” the equestrienne fetish documentary that I
reviewed in a previous article on CineKink. I enjoyed it just as much
the second time and was especially pleased to be able to meet the
director and ask her a few questions.
After the burlesque finale, starring Roxie Del Negro, Anita Cookie, Gig
La Femme, Nasty Canasta and Khadijah Al Vegas, Melissa Ulto awarded
prizes in the following categories: Best Experimental – The Bengala’s
“Pornoqatsi”; Best Animation – Faiyaz Jafri’s “Musical Box”; Erotic
Spirit - Jeffrey Lei’s “Dick How, Asian Porn Star”; Best
Long/Documentary – Elizabeth Elson’s “Born In A Barn”; and Best
Shot/Experimental – Aaron Hawks’s “Salt.” Overall the festival was both
entertaining and eye-opening, if not slickly produced. Ms. Ulto
promises next year’s event, inexplicably themed “Sex, Drugs & Rock
‘n’ Roll, will be bigger, better and sexier!
[Written May 2005]
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