What kinds of sexually explicit films still need to be made?
In the 1970s and 1980s Laird Sutton’s efforts through the National Sex Forum created a landmark number of films detailing the sexual activities of real people in real relationships. Unlike commercial pornography, which features sexual performance professionals who don’t typically share on-going social/emotional relationships with their co-stars, Sutton work documented the “real sex” of the late 20th century. Sutton’s work invited viewers behind closed doors to peek at the sexual goings on of people who felt a confidence about their bodies and their lovemaking. Although these films were often explicitly sexual, unlike commercial pornography their focus was the whole act rather than the signature money-shot-male-orgasm. While the vignettes may not have been rehearsed, there was a shared belief in being sex positive—that having sex, even in front of a camera, was a good thing to be doing.
Sutton went well beyond heterosexual couples making love in their own unique, though typically vanilla, ways. He documented the sexual activities of gay men, lesbian women, bisexual men and women, HIV-positive men, disabled people including those with spinal chord injuries, and the elderly. In the 1980s as concerns about safer sex grew, Sutton featured many ways in which new partners could communicate about and have fun using condoms, latex gloves, dental dams and topical microbicides.
So, what kinds of sexual explicit films still need to be made? Films that document real discovery – not the blasé performances of pornographic stars or confident sex positive people who have done these acts zillions of times, but people who are actually trying something new. While journeys of discovery are common in Hollywood genre films, when it comes to sexual acts, we see few sexological details… In the end we typically surmise it all came out perfect. How often do virgins or for that matter, new lovers, have perfect sex the first time? Hollywood would lead us to believe that it’s quite common. And ultimately a huge disservice is done to the viewing public. What if the charge of a first kiss (which Hollywood is a master at electrifying) were actually followed through a whole sex act? What if we saw a woman orgasm or ejaculate for the first time in her life? What if we could witness a new couple discover erotic things together like trying out bondage and discipline? What if we could hear them talk about it, too?
There are few films that truly integrate emotion and reflection. Sutton’s work sometimes featured people talking and then later in the film we saw them having sex. What we rarely see are films that integrate sex with personal reflection. I would love to make a film that includes an on-going dialogue between lovers as they are making love. We hear them talk each other through making love and then we also add more commentary as they look over the footage and talk about how each moment felt. Here we might take that fantasy projection piece of erotic film and anchor it in a real relationship. We might hear a woman say, “While it might have looked to you like nothing much was going on for me, I was hovering in this delicious plateau pretty oblivious to orgasm, just having a really good time being connected to you.”
While there are plenty of films that show us what orgies look like, there aren’t films that that really show us how participation feels. The pornographic presumption is that pumping and grinding and orgasming in unison are exciting in and of themselves. In real life swing parties, not everyone is in the thick of a body pile. Some people are overwhelmed, others might feel jealous watching their partner connect intensely with others, and still others might feel pressured to be sexual with someone they don’t feel much connection with. To me, these real life emotions are what make real sex interesting. Celluloid versions of candy-coated perfect sex with people who effortlessly know their way around their bodies and their partners bodies might pale in comparison to sex infused with real emotion and real reflection.
In 1995 visual anthropologist Peter Biella created a DVD called “Yanomano Interactive” (Biella 1997). He used anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon’s award winning footage of an ax fight amongst the men of a Venezuelan Yanomamo Indian tribe and created links detailing the backstory. Suddenly an activity that initially looked chaotic: males screaming and yelling and beating up on each other, becomes comprehensible. With the click of a computer mouse we can find out the kin-based clan each man belongs to, what his marital status is, and with whom is allegiances lie. The first thought I had upon seeing Biella’s piece was that it would be fabulous to create “Swinger Interactive.” Often upon entering the back rooms of a swing party, an outsider might just see a dizzying mass of bodies indiscriminately fellating and penetrating and writhing together. Produced in an interactive DVD format we could find out each participants background: their marital history, their spouse/partner if they have one, their safer sex beliefs and practices, and prior encounters with the person(s) we see them interacting with. With this information, we might have a much deeper sense both of the subculture of swinging as well as of individual participants.
While Sutton took positive functional sex out of the closet, perhaps a next step would be to openly address sexual dysfunction by showing otherwise normal people encountering normal problems. Students would deeply benefit from films that depict couples encountering common difficulties like erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, anorgasmia and lack of desire. These could lead to fascinating discussions on how to address these issues. We rarely hear about the woman who gets up to use the bathroom and when she returns the TV is on full and the mood of the room seems indelibly transformed. How do you sustain passion when the mood breaks? Lack of desire is a huge issue for many long-term couples and a complete anathema to pornographic acrobats who are forever hot, interested and able. Perhaps a film that honestly profiles several relationships where there is very little sexual activity would begin to shed light on this very hard to fix problem.
Finally, inspired in part by the tantric puja from East India, there is a growing interest in sexual ceremony. A film that documents the “whole ceremony” from preparing, to doing, to the final unpacking and processing might have much value. Such a film could go on to depict a variety of ways that sex is made sacred – through initiations, marriage ceremonies, and consciously transforming the otherwise mundane… Here, we might depict how by making “ordinary” lovemaking into a conscious ceremony we lift the sacred from the mundane and create an extraordinary event.
Biella, P. Chagnon, N.A. and Seaman, G. YANOMAMO INTERACTIVE CD/ROM, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1997 .
Sutton, L. SAR Tapes 1-12. National Sex Forum, San Francisco: Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, 1994.