In a warehouse in Bushwick, Brooklyn that could only be reached by those who were curious enough to attend and weren’t turned off by its protesters, the “PornHub Presents: NYC Porn Film Festival 2015” was in full swing. PornHub, as its name might suggest, is a popular pornography site.
The festival presented bodies of work that explored the concept of humans as “sexual beings.” Its goal was to eliminate the taboo that surrounds the industry and celebrate the art of pornography. The films varied from very tame to hyper erotic, but they were all in the exploration of what turns us on, what may gross us out, what it means to be sexy and what an explicit push for individuality really looks like.
The festival received public attention after a bondage film submitted by Miley Cyrus peaked the interest of groups previously unaware of the event. Due to the overwhelming attention, the film was pulled from the festival weeks before the premiere.
Cyrus may have been spooked, but James Franco wasn’t. Franco presented his film Interior. Leather Bar. Previous to the festival, the film had never been presented to the public.
He and Travis Matthews reimagined 40-minutes of lost footage from Cruising starring Al Pacino. Those 40-minutes were said to have contained a lengthy sex scene in a gay bar with Pacino as a straight undercover cop uncomfortable with being in such a situation. Val Lauren played Pacino’s role and Lauren himself is also straight. He portrayed Pacino’s part well, looking genuinely uncomfortable throughout the whole process.
With a mix of behind the scenes footage of Franco, Matthews, Lauren and the rest of the cast and crew with the added bonus of the edited end product, the film was tasteful. Behind the scenes footage carried a raw feeling with a 80s style of cinematography. The reimagined scene was modern and trippy, but could also be seen as timeless and classic.
Leather everything: floggers, jock straps, paddles, strobe lights, heavy bass and lots of penis all made the edited final cut.
To some these images are the visualization of hell, but to others it’s absolute heaven. Franco and Val’s wide-eyed reaction to seeing an actor being paddled spoke for itself. Regardless of how they felt about the whole scene personally, Franco was determined to continue.
Truthfully, according to behind the scenes footage, no one, not even Franco, could fully sum up the motive for the film being made. However, Franco felt it was important to do so anyway.
His reasoning sounded more like a collection of random thoughts than concrete motivations, as if he was still spitballing ideas in his own head and trying to figure out why all this was necessary.
“Everybody fucking watches porn,” said Franco when asked about his reasoning.
In a nutshell, it was a push for pornography that, according to Franco, is already spoken about regularly among the public and should be shown mainstream. The film was deemed an exercise in creative freedom.
Overall, many considered the festival to be a success, although plans for another Porn Film Festival have not yet been announced.
In the meantime, if you get bored of your (insert pornography preference here), have already read over our sex column, or are tired of your fuckbuddy, I’ve heard there are a few new toys to play with.
Vibrating selfie stick maybe? Or how about masturbation-powered phone charger courtesy of our pornography gods, Pornhub? Either way, whatever your new guilty pleasure is, make sure to treat yourself.
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