Okay, I’m not actually going to be in Tel Aviv, but tomorrow night both DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER and ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FITare going to be playing in the Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival! Here’s the info:

Tel-Aviv Cinematheque, TLVFEST – Israel International LGBT Film FestivalYair Hochner2 Sprinzak StTel Aviv 64738 Israel
3:00 AM, theater L for ASHLEY AND KISHA3:15 AM, theater G for DAMON AND HUNTER

I don’t know why these films haven’t had more success in the US LGBT Festival circuit, no Reeling, no Frameline, no Philidelphia, none of the big gay and lesbian film fests. The whole film fest thing is a bit of a crap shoot, and after our submission blitz for ASHLEY AND KISHA, I decided that reaching for the film fest brass ring wasn’t the best place to put our money and energy.

Don’t get me wrong. We are thrilled thrilled thrilled when our films get a chance to play in a theater! And we’d never turn down a chance to be in a festival. But we’ve completely given up on the idea that first you do the film fests, then theatrical, the DVD. Both DAMON AND HUNTER and ASHLEY AND KISHA went out to the people first, then on to the film festival circuit. (We put the festival laurels on the second or third pressing.)

This is a contrariun marketing strategy, but it’s worked for us. Our DVD sales are on par with some of the most recognized documentaries of the last couple years. I think one of reason for this is that we don’t cannibalize our DVD sales with endless low or no paying festival appearances or a money-losing theatrical run. Apparently we’re not alone. From a recent Business Week article:

OPTING OUT OF THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT
But like musicians who shun record labels (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07) to sell their music themselves, anecdotal evidence suggests documentary filmmakers—already an entrepreneurial bunch—are foregoing the conventional path of shopping their films to a distributor. They’re skipping such deals and using the Internet to get their stories in front of people who want to hear them.

But while DVD sales might be the financial backbone of Comstock Films, I still think there’s something special about seeing a film in a theater. I still think there’s something magical about the power of a film to turn a group of strangers, sitting in the dark, into an audience. And I because we’re inculcated in the notion that sex is a private, shameful act, I think that’s something wonderful and unexpected when that happens with one of our films.

So meet me in Tel Aviv, meet me there tomorrow night! If not in person, then in spirit!

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!

One of those days. Actually one of those weeks. Plenty to be thankful for, but also plenty of businessy bullshit that can leave a person wondering, “Tell me again. Why am I doing this?”

Then my answer:

My girlfriend and I have just seen your beautiful film about Ashley and Kisha, and we just had to tell you that we loved it. The love-scene at the end was incredibly real and beautiful, and we both had tears in our eyes afterwards.

Thank you!

Lots of love from Sxx & Cxxxxx

No, thank you! Thanks to you I’m going into the weekend with a lump in my throat and a smile on my face!

Got a twitter yesterday from Essin Em.  A month ago Eden Fantasy picked up our series, and now Essin Em has named ASHLEY AND KISHA to her top 10 favorite things at Eden Fantasy. Yay! (A&K is #7, starting at about 5:15)

One thing. I can’t actually find ASHLEY AND KISHA, or any of our other films on the Eden Fantasy website. No wonder they haven’t made a re-order!

Scratch that! They’re right here. Don’t know what was wrong with me this morning. Need more coffee I guess!

Two Queer Girls in Love
CURVE MAGAZINE, June 2008

Two women smile shyly into the camera. They are young. They are black. They sit entwined as only lovers do, talking about sex and being black. Then the camera cuts to them having sex.

Ashley and Kisha: Finding the Right Fit is a documentary showcasing the love story of a lesbian couple.

So how does a sweet little movie about tender young love spark a fist-pumping, civil rights-questioning brawl? By getting banned from the Melbourne Underground Film Festival (MUFF).

In Australia, for a film to be sold it has to be “classified,” or given a rating, by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). And if a movie is classified as “X,” it can’t be sold. Many film festivals will request exemptions for the films they show because the classification process is long and expensive.

At this year’s MUFF, festival director Richard Wolstencroft applied for an exemption for Ashley and Kisha. The OFLC denied the request without seeing the film, based on the director Tony Comstock’s previous explicit documentaries that depict real couples having real sex.

Comstock says that the denial may not have been a reaction to the explicit content of the film, but retribution. In 2006, Wolstencroft went against the orders of the OFLC and screened one of Comstock’s movies. So this year, the OFLC forbade Wolstencroft from showing seven movies, and even sent police to ensure that Ashley and Kisha wasn’t screened.

Comstock maintains that the movie is only controversial because it’s about lesbians. “If you’re a realist you’re saying, ‘Of course it’s controversial,’ and if you’re an idealist you’re saying, ‘What’s controversial about people being in love?’”

Comstock has many reasons for taking up arms against the OFLC.

First, there are his subjects and his product. “There’s a sense of responsibility and of trust … I haven’t had to fight for my sexuality, I fight for my movies.” Second, he thinks of himself as fighting the latest battle against censorship and the moral majority. “This is the last little gasp of a dying way of thinking about the world.”

But most importantly, he sees the ban as an affront to human rights. “It’s not Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or Malaysia. It’s not one of these places with oppressive regimes. It’s Australia, for Christ’s sake … It’s a freedom issue. Freedom is not liberal or conservative. Totalitarians don’t care about freedom. It’s exciting that this little film is provoking some discussion about these big ideas.”

And it is. In light of the controversy, an ad hoc community of the Australian body politic has come together to support a lesbian film. From the LGBT community to the Institute of Public Affairs (a free-market think tank), people have all come together to protest the ban. This delights Comstock. “Black, white, gay, straight–the people who like our stuff like our stuff. You’re getting to something transcendent about the nature of love and sex and gender.”

What can I say? I was just over at TinyNibbles.com and saw that Violet has named ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT to her Top Five of 2007 list! Also on the list:

Triple Ecstasy, dir. Kimberly Kane
Debbie Loves Dallas, dir. Eon McKai
Tristan Taormino’s Chemistry #3, dir. Tristan Taormino
Skateboard Kink Freak, dir. Maria Beatty

Tonight, after the Pioneer screenings I’ll be headed up to Rockefeller Center to visit with Diana Cage on her Sirius radio show, on Sirius channel 109.

See you on the radio!

A quick heads-up on an upcoming screening of ASHLEY AND KISHA

ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT
Amsterdam Alternative Erotic Film Festival
Sunday, November 18, 8PM
Cinema OT301,
Overtoom 301,
1054 HW Amsterdam

Our thanks to Jennifer Lyon Bell for inviting our film to screen!

Well the public screening of ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT did not take place, but there was a judges’ screening of it, and the other six banned films. And guess what? They like us! They really like us! Best Foreign Film, Best Foreign Film and the second most covetted award at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, Most Gratuitous Use of Sex. (The first being Most Gratuitous Use of Violence.) Here’s the full list of awards:

BEST FILM
A Nocturne
Dir: Bill Mousoulis

BEST FOREIGN FEMALE ACTOR
Mihiro - Love Runs Faster Than Blood

Many thanks to festival director Richard Wolstencroft. The Melbourne Underground Film Festival sets the standard for what an underground film festival ought to be; a fearless challenge to the status quo, and a shot across the bow to the powers that be!

The OFLC can’t stop thousands of unclassified DVDs from being sold illegally throughout Australia, but they did manage to stop the Melbourne Underground Film Festival from screening ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT in front of an audience of movie lovers at a small cinema in the Fitzroy district of Melbourne, (just to be sure, the OFLC sent a police detail to the theater the night of the screening.) The OFLC’s refusal to grant ASHLEY AND KISHA an exemption to play at MUFF comes right on the heels of “special attention” being paid to a number of gay and lesbian book and DVD stores in Melbourne. For some reason, the OFLC seems to take a special interest in what Australia’s G&L is watching on DVD.

If any good has come out of this whole mess, it’s that after years of silence, the topic of censorship is making headlines in Australia again.

Lesbian Film Banned, Melbourne Community Voice
http://mcv.e-p.net.au/news/lesbian-film-banned.html

Gay Movies Muffed, Bnews
http://www.bnews.net.au/content/view/605/66/

Radio Interview on ABC’s Hack news program
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/mp3s/hack_muff.mp3

Film classification laws out of sync with the 21st century
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/30/1191090938881.html

Fundmentally for Your Own Good, by Dean Bertum
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,22531928-7583,00.html?from=public_rss