Less than a year after its release, the first run of ASHLEY AND KISHA has sold out, the film has found its way into five film festivals on four continents, and received positive reviews in some of the world’s leading lesbian publications. It even made Violet Blue’s “Best of 2007″ list. I am, to put it mildly, thrilled!

There were moments when I wondered what the reaction would be to me — a middle-aged white guy –offering up a film about two young black women in love (“Am I a Punany Poet?” 4/23/05). Would I be regarded as an interloper? An intruder? An exploiter? That would have broke my heart.

But that didn’t happen. Over and over again people said, “Thank you, Tony. Thank you for making this beautiful film.” That breaks my heart too, but in the very best way! It also brings me back to something I wrote in that post over three years ago:

I am encouraged by this feedback. In the past few years, sexually explicit material has fractured into an ever-increasing number of what the industry (mis)labels “fetishes”. There are segregations by sex act, by race, by age. There are videos that show nothing but young white women getting fucked in the ass by black men, or videos that show nothing but asian women having sex with each other.

I don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with people wanting to see what they want to see (a photo I saw at an early age of Sophia Loren has left me easy prey for the word “Latina”) but as this fractured view of sexuality more and more defines pornography, it seems to imply that the way to reach the audience for graphic sex is by focusing on the most objective, quantifiable elements. I don’t think this is so. I think there ways to depict sex that can transcend race, gender, or sexuality, and Jessica, Linda, JAG and the others are helping to sustain me in my belief that by focusing on the subjective aspects of the sexual experience, I can reach across boundaries of race, or gender, or sexual taste.

Of course differences still matter – Jessica is a African-American woman, raised in the South by old church-going lady who “still had cotton under her fingernails.” I’m second-generation Irish and Jewish, raised in the white, middle-class suburbs of the West Coast – but those aren’t the only things that matter, and they’re not always the thing that matters the most. You don’t have to be African-American to be inspired by the story of the Tuskegee Airmen; you don’t have to be Jewish to feel the horror of The Holocaust; you don’t have to be young, black, or a lesbian to know when you’re watching Kisha ride Ashley’s face, you’re seeing something that’s as right as rain.

Three years later, I am happy to report that nothing that has happened to change my mind. Three years later, ASHLEY AND KISHA not only reached across boundaries of race, gender and sexual orientation, it’s also challenged the very way that sexuality can and should be depicted in cinema. It’s asked the question, “You tell me why not?” and then answered that question with defiant beauty, radiant joy, and abundant love.

 This is why I make these films. My deepest gratitude to everyone who has helped me keep making them!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 6:11 pm and is filed under Ashley and Kisha. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.