In episode 2 of “Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract” we hear how Xana decided to take it slow. Their first night together featured a shared a shower and some heavy petting, but no sex. That didn’t happen until later, when Xana gave herself to Dax for his birthday… Enjoy!
What a year 2008 has been! Here’s a look back at a few of the bigger goings on here at Casa Comstock:
1) The Swiss Family Comstock Sails the High Seas
Last Winter we piled ourselves, our children and our pets into a 30 year old sloop and headed off to find adventure. We found that and plenty more. All hands survived, no worse for wear. Some lessons were learned too, and we even had a little fun! You can read more in the blog post Not Dead Yet
2) Tony Tangles with the Australian Art Establishment over Censorship
Upon our return, Tony promptly fell into a vicious flame-war with Australian writer and critic Allison Crogon over the Australian intelligentsia’s response the the seizing of Bill Henson’s photography; the gist being, “Where were you and your fancy friends when the police were showing up to stop my films from being screened?” Hilarity ensued! Start with the following link and if amused, work your way around the blog with appropriate keywords: A Modest Proposal
3) Damon & Hunter and Ashley & Kisha play the Tel Aviv Int’l LGBT Film Festival
The screenings of Damon & Hunter and Ashley & Kisha at the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival marked the first time our films have screened in Asia. That leaves Africa, South America, and Antarctica!
Meet me in Tel Aviv
4) Comstock Films No On Prop 8 Fundraiser
Nothing like setting the rights of your fellow citizens to a popular vote to get the party started! Sadly the ballot measure (barely) passed. But no regrets about the $1800 we sent to NoOnProp.org to try and defeat it:
Vote No on Prop 8
Clitoris banned by google safesearch
5) Google Says Clitoris is Unsafe at Any Speed
These days it’s not enough to be a filmmaker. You’ve got to be a marketeer and semi-professional Google expert. Tony updates George Carlin’s famous routine for the New Searchable Era ™. The story was picked up by Susie Bright, Jezebel, WebProNews, and others:
Penis = Safe, Clitoris = Unsafe
http://googlesbannedwords.blogspot.com/
6) YouTube, Not MyTube
We started to play around with using Youtube to promote our films, only to find out that joking about sex is okay on YouTube, and so is murder. But taking sex seriously? Sorry buddy, that’s a TOS violation!
YouTube, not MyTube (How Hysterical Hypocrisy Hurts Us All
7) Bill and Desiree, Finally Finished!
And after all that, we even got a movie out! BILL AND DESIRE: LOVE IS TIMELESS is finished and ready to go!
In the DVD Shop
http://shop.comstockfilms.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=14
First Reviews
http://www.comstockfilms.com/blog/tony/2008/12/15/may-touch-redeem-us/
So there it is, 2008 in a nutshell. What a year it’s been! So what about looking forward?
So Much for San Francisco Values?
Christmas Day Violet Blue raised up our Google SafeSearch Story as one of the 5 Under-covered Stories of 2008, and just like the last time we broke a Google search/sex related story, editors at the San Francisco news outlet have separated themselves from the pack by refusing (over Violet’s objections) to link to ComstockFilms.com. That’s right. Time.com, TheAtlantic.com, and a host of other national publications have linked to ComstockFilms.com, but now The San Francisco Chronicle joins KQED/PBS in “protecting” it’s readers from our site.
I don’t think this is insignificant, and I’m ruminating over what this and other developments in search, content filtering, complaint-driven Web 2.0 systems and other trends mean for independent cinema, and sexual culture on the internet. It’s not all bad news, but I think there are big changes coming. More thoughts on this in the New Year.
Introducing Michael Trainor, Editor
Last Summer I put an ad in Mandy for an assistant editor. After reviewing over 100 resumes/reels, I have finally (finally) found someone who seemed like he “got it”; not just the films we make, but the bigger picture of what it means to commit yourself to a life in the arts.
Michael is nearly young enough to be my son, so in addition to his youth and energy, he brings a post-internet perspective to the party, and working with him has been fantastic. By the time “Bill and Desiree” was finished, the only appropriate thing to do was to (some what reluctantly) remove my name from the editor’s credit and put his in. That makes “Bill and Desiree” the very first film that I’ve directed that I haven’t edited; and some people have called “Bill and Desiree” our best film yet. Look for Michael’s name on our upcoming films.
Upcoming Films
With Michael’s help, we’re hoping to get the remainder of our backlog out the door in short order. The changes referred to above lend a certain sense of urgency to getting those films finished, and tackling a few more films I want to make while making them is still possible. Specifically:
* I’d like to make a film about a gay couple that’s been together at least as long as Peggy and I have been together (our 12th anniversary is in a few days.)
*Over the years we’ve received more than a few really nice notes from straight black couples asking when/if we’ll make a film with an African-American couple. This is something I’d like to do we still have the chance.
*The Fisting Film. As mentioned now and again, the second couple we ever did a “study” with enthusiastically incorporated vigorous hand-play (aka fisting) into their lovemaking. Anyone who’s ever seen fisting between a loving couple knows that it is not the diabolical act that it’s made out to be. I’d like to make a film that tackles this myth and the bizarre notion of “obscenity” head-on.
If all this sounds a little cryptic and dire, please don’t be worried. Nothing I see coming constitutes an existential threat to our family. In the early part of this decade a seem opened up, and we (with some considerable trepidation) walked through it; and what had been a curious hobby became an even more curious way to make a living.
As a result we’ve been able to put some images and ideas in the world that I am very proud of, and the reception these films has received has been heartwarming. With your support, I’ve been given an incredible opportunity to support my family making films I believe in very deeply. For an artist, there is no higher affirmation.
But nothing lasts forever, and who would want it to anyway? We look forward to 2009 and beyond ready to embrace whatever comes, and with little doubt that whatever comes, we will adapt and make the most of it. Here’s hoping the same for all of you!
From me and Peggy, here’s wishing all of you a happy and prosperous New Year!
Mine and Peggy’s is a mixed marriage, born from mixed marriages. Within our children mingles the blood of their Ashkenazi, Irish, German, and English ancestors. Some arrived on the shores of this country within living memory, others have been here since well before the Declaration of Independence.
Though we are an areligious household, our children’s faith heritage is diverse. For us there is no sectarian drama surrounding the Winter holidays, only more ways to celebrate the season.
Christmas morning, we will make the three hour drive to my wife’s parents’ house for the annual gathering of the clan. This affair takes place in a rambling Victorian house on a tree-lined street; a veritable Norman Rockwell Christmas rendering, made modern by the presence of of Jews and Muslims and Buddhists, all gathered to enjoy the warm tidings of the season.
For me, perhaps the greatest reason to celebrate is that the days are now getting longer. Unlike my wife, I am a creature of neither the night nor the Winter. I pine for long days and warm weather.
Nonetheless, there is a certain majesty in the quiet and cold of a long Winter’s night. In the crisp still air, it does feel as if something normally distant comes a little closer.
Where ever you are, however you worship, whomever you love; warmest holiday wishes from me and Peggy. We hope you make merry, drink deeply from the Christmas cheer, and sleep in heavenly peace!
Yep. It’s Clementine oranges. Love them love them love them love them!
I love the little wooden crates they come in. I love how easy they are to peel. I love how sweet and juicy they are. Love, love, LOVE! But you know what I love most? I love knowing I don’t have “manage” my Clementine consumption. I love knowing that I can indulge in Clementine orange gluttony with complete abandon.
Here’s why.
Where we live Clementines cost between $5-$10/box. At that price, and given our family income, if Clementines were available year round, my unbridled Clementine lust could easily put a dent in our household budget. Each individual Clementine would have to considered. Have I earned this Clementine? Can I afford this Clementine? Could I put off eating this Clementine till tomorrow?
Now mostly I don’t mind thinking this way; in fact, I take pride in being able to divine value, defer pleasure, and make rational decisions. But at times it seems as if my mind is a constantly running cost/benefit analysis spreadsheet.
If the newer car gets 25mpg, but costs $5K more than the 19mpg option, which should we buy? Do the benefits of shooting film instead of video offset the added risk, effort, and expense? Does the cost of paying my own way to a festival where our films are playing meaningfully enhance the publicity value of the event?
Hundreds, even thousands of dollars lie the balance of these questions; questions that don’t have clear cut answer. This sort of best-guess calculus is the nuts and bolts of being an independent filmmaker (or any small business owner for that matter.) It’s what I signed on for, and I’m not complaining.
But when you get in the habit of thinking this way, it can be hard to stop. We rarely eat dinner out, even when we feel like we can afford it. We’re weeks away from taking our first non-DIY vacation ever (a cruise), and even though it’s already paid for, I still feel vaguely uneasy. Spending money, even money we can afford – to make things easier, or just to buy something just because it’s nice makes – make me uncomfortable. I’m still not quite sure how you ledger pleasure in a cost/benefit spreadsheet.
But I know how to run the calculus for Clementine oranges! They won’t be here for long, so eat as many as you want for as long as they last! In fact, ever Clementine not eaten is a Clementine gone forever! A minor tragedy! If anything, enjoying Clementines while you can is practically a moral imperative!
As to all that other Christmas stuff; family, friends, good tidings and season’s greetings? I try my best to enjoy that stuff all year ’round.
My last post about peak experiences and surfing and sex reminded me that inspiration is where you find it. And when you find it, you hold on and don’t let go. From BruceBrownFilms.com
Bruce Brown’s sixth film, “The Endless Summer,” is the archetypal tale of two California surfers, blond Mike Hynson and dark Robert August, hitting the road to follow summer and surf around the world…
There are bigger, better, scarier and more exciting waves in lots of other surf flicks, but none pay off quite as satisfyingly as “Bruce’s Beauties.” There, in that sequence, was magic indeed. When the film was finished, Brown knew he had something good in the can.
The Endless Summer was a big success on the circuit — so big that [they] thought they might be able to attract a national distributor. [They] decided a test run in the U.S. heartland would be convincing, [s]o they booked a theater in Wichita, Kansas, and the film broke house records there for two solid weeks.
When that didn’t work, they took the film to Manhattan and booked it into the Kuyps Bay Theatre…
The Endless Summer played the Kuyps Bay for a year. Meanwhile, it was picked up by Cinema 5 for national (and then worldwide) distribution. The reaction of Kansans and New Yorkers was echoed by audiences around the country when the film finally went into distribution in 1966. It was similar to the reaction of the people crowding the beaches in Senegal and Ghana when Hynson and August paddled out and rode waves right in front of their villages — they were stoked! Brown, too, was stoked; his $50,000 investment brought him millions.
Bruce Brown’s “Endless Summer” was released the year I was born, and has been an inspiration to me; first as a surfer, then as a filmmaker. And in both instances, the wonderful Cape St. Francis sequence is the key.
I still remember the first time I saw Endless Summer, and what I remember most was Cape St Francis completely capturing my imagination. And more than forty years after the film was released, that sequence is the cinematic encapsulation of the “perfect day”. Not the biggest day, not the scariest day; but beautiful waves, warm water, and friends to share it with. When non-surfing friends come to visit us, I make them watch Endless Summer, and without fail, the Cape St. Francis segment gets them stoked to got out and surfing a try!
As a filmmaker, the story of Bruce Brown’s belief in the film, his belief he had made a surf film that non-surfers would enjoy and embrace is inspiring. He financed the film himself. He rented the movie theater as far away from the ocean as he could. When the sell-out crowds in Kansas weren’t enough to convince the doubters, he rented a theater in New York City, where the film played continuously for the next year.
As an independent filmmaker myself, how can I not be inspired when I read that story? How can I not be stoked?
”Endless Summer” captured surfing in away was captivating to both surfers and non-surfers alike. Somehow Brown, by focusing on the details and specifics of surfing, captured something that went beyond the details and specifics, and in that he created a film that anyone could relate to.
“Endless Summer” simultaneously about surfing and about something more. Yes, that Cape St. Francis sequence is about a perfect day of surfing; but it’s as much about a perfect day of skiing; or a perfect day with your children; or a perfect day with a lover. It’s about those rare, wonderful days we capture in our hearts and hold on to them forever.
Perhaps you remember the headline from a few weeks back. A recent pharmaceutical firm funded research study claiming that nearly half of all women suffer from sexual dysfunction. When “polite” society talks about sex, it’s always got to be in medical or educational context, but always with the most garish (and often misleading) headline possible.
A legacy of Anthony Comstock is that even today “sex education” is the rubric by which explicit sexuality is sneaked into polite society. Calling a film “educational” is a way of classing it with gynecology and urology textbooks; and “medicalized sexuality” has a cache of respectability that presenting sexuality as mere entertain lacks. Educating people about sex, or helping them with sex problems is okay. Entertaining viewers, or worse, arousing them, is not.
We have resisted marketing our work as “educational.” It’s not that I don’t recognize there’s an educational value in hearing real people’s love stories and seeing how people have sex in real life, but employing the figleaf of “sex education” undercuts what is for me, what is the broader meaning of these films: that seeing how people live, and seeing how they love, in all it’s passion, tenderness and glory, is as worthwhile a subject for a filmmaker as any other aspect of the human experience.
But there’s another reason.
I don’t relate to the way that so much “sex education” speaks to sex. For me there’s just too much proscriptive, comparative language. “Better sex!” “Bigger orgasms!” These days even conservative Christians are getting in on the act – all you have to is follow “God’s plan!” and you’ll experience “deeper intimacy!”
It’s not that I’m opposed to bigger orgasms or deeper intimacy, but the choice of language often makes me feel like sex is just another consumeristic pursuit, or a competition (same thing?) Implicit in this sort of language is the idea that you’re doing it wrong.
To my ears it all sounds a little like telling someone they’re taking a walk in the woods the wrong way. Or that if they like a walk in the woods, they’ll like a hike in the mountains even better. Or that people who climb Mt. Everest have a more meaningful experience of their time outdoors than people who enjoy lying on the beach in the sun.
I’m not much of a hiker, but I do like to surf. And one of the things that’s always struck me about surfing movies is that whether I’m watching footage of waves that are well within my level of expertise, or watching Laird Hamilton getting towed into a Teahupoo death-wave, seeing people who are stoked about surfing makes me feel stoked about surfing! I don’t feel educated, and I don’t feel like I’m doing it wrong. I just feel stoked!
Surfing isn’t just about Teahupoo. Sex isn’t just about peak experiences. And films about sex don’t have to be “educational” to have a value in polite society.
Reactions are coming in for our new film BILL AND DESIREE: LOVE IS TIMELESS, and I couldn’t be happier. BILL AND DESIREE is the sixth of our erotic documentaries, and from the beginning I’ve hoped that these films would be understood as something more than an erotic morsel. I’ve hoped that between the love and the loving, these films communicate something about how deeply essential and about deeply consequential sex is.
Maybe that’s asking too much from such small, simple movies. But reading how people are reacting to BILL AND DESIREE, I can’t help but feel hopeful!
AAG, still healing from a painful divorce, was especially touched by Bill’s love poem:
Near the end of the interview, Bill opened a book of poems he wrote for Desiree. Oh no, I thought. I cannot bear this. Sentimentalism of any sort horrifies me. But then Bill began to read:
A Small Poem about Tenderness
Tonight I would be the provider of solace, the caregiver,
in the face of all that had afflicted you this day.But when you took me fully in your mouth, small,
yielding, your encompassing warmth and sweetnesswithout urgency or agenda, every door opened,
every hurt and hesitation was healed. I gave myselfup to you, and you gave me myself, whole and at peace.
Would you like to be inside? you asked, looking upfrom your giving. And in a moment you were above me,
radiant, wordless, emptied of urgency and injury,and this thoughtless joy rose in my bones, this joy
conceived in love, refracted in your eyes, easy as breath.Each day, each enfolding night may we come to each other
healed, jubilant and patient, each day of all the dayswe may be graced with. May no hurt ever be stronger
than the simplest act of love. May touch redeem us.I watched with tears on my cheeks. This is what I was missing. This was why the divorce had to happen. The children don’t understand now — and oh God I hope they never understand — but I know.
From Ell at Wilful Damage, a sense of seeing her own love affair with her husband of 20 years reflected in the film:
Bill and Desiree have a gorgeous calm and wise presence on camera. Viewers will empathise when they talk of the warmth and security of being loved by someone who truly knows you, being seen and heard and loved, when Desiree comments to Bill “You know me” we understand that she means deeply – “You know me.” - it’s a powerful moment. When she says, “I’ve never been loved like this, or felt this kind of love before,” I felt myself nodding in knowing agreement…
It’s a hopeful or hope filled movie – as my sweetheart and I approach middle years I guess I’m relieved and excited that love and sex can flourish no matter what age. I’ve known that in my heart, but as we rarely if ever get to actually see what real sex and real love looks like between people of any age, Bill and Desiree serves as proof for me – beautiful, life affirming, sexy proof.
From Ms.Naughty, reassurance for me why making these films matters:
In the epilogue to the sex scene, Bill and Desiree say they decided to do the film because so few people get a chance to see real intimacy. “If some people aren’t willing to be seen,” says Desiree, “how do we learn? How do we get comfortable with who we are as sexual beings?”
Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless is worth seeing because it’s a perfect portrayal of real sex. It’s the kind of sex I recognise, that I have and that I know other people have. The techniques may be different perhaps, but it has the same vibe, the same hotness and fun and love. The fact that this kind of movie is so rare makes it all the more valuable.
And if getting older means having sex like that, well, bring it on.
Despite living in what at times seems like a sex-saturated culture, there is still a strong undercurrent that tells us that prioritizing sex is silly and selfish. Yes, there is sex all around us, but mostly it is presented as some sort of baroque pantomime or garish burlesque. Sex is trivialized, infantilized, and mocked. As a filmmaker I feel this current pushing against me, and sometimes it feels as if it will pull me under and sweep me away. Sometime I feel foolish for devoting my life to making films about sex.
But not today.
Today I am reassured. Today I am hopeful. Today I am redeemed!
As far as Google is concerned, ComstockFilms.com is a dirty domain. Google search result bring up people linking to my posts ahead of the posts themselves, they even rank spamblogs that scrape our content ahead of our pages; and it doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot we can do about it. So it goes in the New Searchable Era ™
Meanwhile, we’re on pins and needles to see if we can make Australia’s 10,000 domain blacklist. We’ve already had our films banned from film festivals by the OFLC, maybe we can get banned from the Australian internet in Australia too. . Woo friggin hoo.
In consultations with ISPs, concerns have been raised that filtering a blacklist beyond 10 000 URLs may raise network performance issues, depending on the configuration of the filter. The pilot will therefore seek to also test network performance against a test list of 10 000 URLs.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~frankfil/Internet%20filtering%20letter.pdf
Remember, if you haven’t done anything wrong (or voiced a controversial opinion) you’ve got nothing to worry about. The OFLC, Google, and YouTube just want to keep things Safe.
Man charged over viral baby-swinging video
A Queensland man has been charged for re-publishing on a video-sharing site a viral video of a man swinging a baby around like a rag doll.
The controversial three-minute video had already been published widely across the internet and shown on American TV news shows. The clip can still be found online today.
Chris Illingworth, 60, a father of four from Maroochydore, thought he would share it with fellow users of Liveleak, a site similar to YouTube but focused on news and current events. In two years, he has uploaded hundreds of videos to Liveleak.
His home was raided on Sunday, November 30, by Queensland Police from Task Force Argos, which specialises in combating child pornography and child groomers.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/internet-video-nightmare/2008/12/08/1228584709781.html
Some people think other people worry too much about privacy, too much about liberty, too much about the encroachment of the state. Some people say, “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Bullshit.
Back when we used paper to communicate, the very fact that it wasn’t possible to check up on everything meant the state didn’t check up unless they thought had a fairly good reason. It gave us a defacto level of privacy and balance between individual liberty and the power of the state that we’ve come to take for granted in liberal western democracies
Not any more. Welcome to the New Searchable Era ™. Algorithms, keywords, and user-flagging; making a Safer world for all of us.
In the comment of my post from 2005 The Porn Monster I wrote the following:
Whatever what label they’re given, my films are made on the hope that, like me, there are many people, both women and men, who find that the moving images of sex they’ve seen rarely rise even to the point of being offensive, and more often such depictions are merely boring; and that if I’m going to ask these people to sit for an hour, I’m going to have to remember that not everyone will desparately endure any sort of cinematic travisty just to see a little fucking. (In fact, I think many, pehaps most people won’t.)
Three years and five films later, there is mounting evidence that I am not alone in my feelings about the collision of sex and the moving image. Writes Goose, of TheGooseAndTheGander.blogspot.com:
I, generally speaking, am not a fan of traditional porn. I’ve tried it many times, much as I’ve tried foods I don’t like just to see if I’ve finally developed a taste. Every few years or so, I’ll come back to the porn well, ladle up a movie or two and watch. Sometimes alone, sometimes with Gander. And the result is quite usually the same. Some mild amusement or arousal, laughter, leading to an acute sense of unease mingled with doubt of my sexual progressiveness, all ending up in a morass of academic thought on feminism, power and sexuality. And no sex during or after.
So much for “traditional porn”, but what about “alternative porn, Goose?
I’m not a huge connoisseur of alternative erotica and porn, either. There is likely tons out there that is of extremely high quality, tender, humorous etc. I just haven’t found it. What I’ve seen usually makes me feel pessimistic about sex and sexual education, and openness and women’s rights, and so I usually don’t go looking around for it. This makes me kind of sad, cause I do actually like watching sexual activity.
I suppose this is where Goose feels like a blasphemer, and I guess I do too. I want to like “alternative porn”; all the explanation of why it was made and how it was made, peppered with words like “empowerment” and “agency” hit the right notes. But when the rubber hits the road… No, just no. I don’t see it on the screen. I see the same lack of craft, the same inattention to detail that I see in “traditional porn”.
Leaving the film-craft aside, I just don’t understand the attitudes being expressed about sex, connection, love. Maybe around the edges of the frame I can hear the echo of something familiar, but mostly I see a disconnectedness that leaves me cold. I think, “Is this how the people who made this movie really feel about sex?” Sometimes that makes me feel angry. Sometimes it makes me feel like a freak. Sometimes, like Goose, it makes me feel sad.
I decided to purchase a movie from Comstock Films, after hearing really good things about them from a friend. We watched Matt and Khym: Better Than Ever last night, and I have to say I came away from the viewing with a really renewed sense of hope surrounding sex positivity. They were a happy couple, a lovely couple, and you could see how much they cared for each other’s pleasure, how long they’d been together, how delighted they were. The movie was filmed beautifully as well and I can only imagine the excellent and ethical communication skills and fierce vision needed to build trust and comfort between producer and participant, cinematographer and performer to create something really intimate.
Intimacy. That’s what’s so missing from the cinematic artifacts of my so-called sex-positive culture, at least that’s how it seems to me. And sometimes I feel like maybe I’m the oddball for finding it’s absence so conspicuous; like there’s something strange about me for craving imagery the reflects my sexual reality; that sex is consequential.
And I feel like a bit of a blasphemer for calling it out.
