Sweetest Taboos
A Collection of Erotic Short Films
Co-Presented with QFest
Co-Curated by QFest and Make Love Not Porn
Saturday, July 26, 7PM (Doors Open at 6PM)
Aurora Members Free; Non-Members $10 (door sales only at this time)
**This program contains adult content - No one under 18 will be admitted**
Aurora Picture Show is pleased to partner with QFest on the 18th anniversary of Houston’s International GLBT–Q Film Festival. In celebration of the comedy, the profundity and the mystery that is sex, QFest’s Kristian Salinas and Sarah Beall, Curator of the groundbreaking website MakeLoveNotPorn.TV, have curated an arousing collection of seminal and contemporary erotic short works reflecting all that is sensuous and voluptuous within both our daily and imagined lives.
Doors open at 6PM with a light reception and brews sponsored by Saint Arnold Brewery, and then the program will begin with a panel discussion at 7PM featuring Ms. Beall, artist/performer/director Dale Cooper, and intersex-bodied trans/queer performance artist Koomah. Discussing their own personal experiences, the panelists will examine alternative viewpoints that could reframe the way we look at mainstream pornography. The panel will explore new ways of looking at pornography and our relationship looking at those identities and personalities.
The adults-only screening follows at 8PM and will include multiple exhibition formats, including 16mm prints. Featured filmmakers will include James Broughton, Iris Moore, Elisha Kim, Curt MacDowell, and Travis Matthews.
The following films are included in this program:
Stretch
Dir: Camilo Gonzalez
Sound and image expand and explode in this mischievous take on blowing bubbles.
Erogeny
Dir: James Broughton
Broughton's visually poetic exploration of the male and female nude body.
WEMEGIDDOSTYLE (Intro Video #2)
Dir: WeMegiddoStyle
A young married couple openly discuss how they managed to engage in premarital sex while also avoiding violating their strict religious beliefs.
Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Preview)
Dir: PARROT99
An elderly couple living on opposite coasts share moments of intimacy.
Nudes
Dir: Curt McDowell
McDowell's rarely screened provocative masterwork explicitly rejoices in the sex lives of those nearest and dearest, including himself.
100 Butches: Ruby
Dir: Elisha Kim
A recollection, in clay animation, of a young woman's first sexual awakening to her lesbianism.
Trains
Dir: Paul Deeb
Adult performer Lilly Cade flirts along the fine line between "real" and "reel" world orgasm.
ThisIsOurHandle (Intro Video #1)
Dir: Dale Cooper
Performers Dale Cooper and Colby Keller share an enticing invitation to share in their depiction of real world sex
Nikki Hearts Kleio Valentein (Intro Video)
Dir: Nikki Hearts
Steamy teaser featuring Nikki Hearts and friend demonstrating F4F penetration.
Rye. Pegged. (Trailer)
Dir: Violet+Rye
Violet demonstrated "pegging" with boyfriend Rye.
Jumpcut
Dir: Saskia Quax
Nominated for a 2013 Feminist Porn Award, a provocative depiction of a young woman's bondage fantasy.
A Weekend in Germany
Dir: Jan Soldat
Manfred and Jürgen are back, practicing BDSM with willing friends on weekends and sharing stories of their life together.
Beyond The Mirror’s Gaze
Dir: Iris Moore
Animated celebration of sexual pleasure free from gender!
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Sarah Beall, a.k.a. Madam Curator, is the curator and community manager for MakeLoveNotPorn.tv. Recently profiled by Elle Magazine, she is the benevolent and savvy human gateway between #realworldsex videos and THE INTERNET, as well as the sherpa who guides MLNP.tv's MakeLoveNotPornStars on their journey of sexual self expression and discovery. A former burlesque dancer, she is a long time contributor to, and most recently editor of, "Lickety Split Smut Zine," a legendary pansexual indie publication dedicated to sex positive expression in thought based in her hometown of Montreal, Canada. Follow her on twitter at @MadamCuratorXO and read her writing on talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv.
Koomah is an intersex-bodied trans/queer interdisciplinary grassroots visual artist, performer, filmmaker, and part-time hermaphrodite unicorn. Koomah often leads workshops and gives lectures on topics of intersex/trans issues, gender, sexuality, performance, and sex work. Koomah has performed, showcased artwork, and screened films nationwide.
Dale Cooper is a gay male porn actor who occasionally writes about things that generally don't have anything to do with gay male porn acting. He has a degree in science and technology studies from Brown University and still reads a lot. He works as a bike messenger in Baltimore, Maryland, and keeps a web presence at www.daledoesporn.com and on Twitter @daledoesporn.
Dudley Saunders is a trans-disciplinary gay artist whose work explores the hidden lives of marginalized people: in performance art, video, fiction, documentary film and indie-folk music. The Kentucky native first began performing his "surreal, modern folk tales" (Village Voice) to downtown New York audiences in the late 80s. He is best known for his four music albums RESTORE, THE BILLY WHITE ACRE SESSIONS, THE EMERGENCY LANE and the recent MONSTERS. He has received writing fellowships from Yaddo, The Edward Albee Foundation and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, as well as grants from the Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation and Meet The Composers. He has contributed fiction to The Kenyon Review and journalism to such magazines such as The Village Voice, Interview and Rolling Stone. He has also written and performed four evening-length performance pieces, SECOND SLEEP (The Pyramid Club, 1990), THE LONG SWALLOWED HAIR (OR FAGGOT SKIN) (The Kitchen, 1992), BIRDBONES (The Kitchen, 1994) and DEATH BLUES (Dixon Place, 1995), which New York Press selected as Best Musical of the Year. Other recent awards include the 2009 Outmusic Award for Best Album and the 2011 Mountain Stage NewSong Contest for the American West. In film and video, he won the Aurora and Prism Awards for his 2002 documentary THE PROCESS, and the 2012 Promax Gold Award for his public TV interstitial series MORE: THE REAL CREATURES OF PRIMEVAL. Dudley’s life as an activist was a subject in the recent documentary UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT UP, which also included his music. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
ABOUT THE CURATORS
MakeLoveNotPorn.TV is pro-sex, pro-porn, and pro-knowing the difference. MLNP.TV is not porn - porn is performance. Learn more at www.makelovenotporn.tv.
QFest is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts as a powerful tool for communication and cooperation among diverse communities by presenting programs by, about, or of interest to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer community. For more information on the other screenings that are part of QFest, please visit www.q-fest.org.