DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER is nominated in the Best Alternative Release category in the 2006 GayVN Awards. Also nominatied are: GAY SEX IN THE 70s, STONEWALL & RIOT, STORY FILMS CLASSICS: THE WILD ONES and THAT MAN: PETER BERLIN

Our thanks to the editors at GayVN for putting us in such esteemed company!

Comstock Films’ DAMOM AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER will have it’s West Coast Premiere in San Francisco on Friday January 19th, 9:00PM at the Yreba Buena Center for the Arts as part of the Passion Plays session of the CineKink Film Festival.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission Street (@ Third)
San Francisco

The award-winning DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER is the third in an ongoing series of documentaries from New York based director Tony Comstock that explore the real and vital role that sexual pleasure plays in human relationship. In this case, the couple in question are long time lovers Damon DeMarco and Hunter James, and the film centers around an explicit portrayal of Damon and Hunter making love.

“From the first moment we turned the cameras on Damon and Hunter, I knew I had the opportunity to capture something very special, and by the time the shoot wrapped I knew we had the raw material to make a very wonderful film,” says director Tony Comstock. “The reception the film has received has been overwhelming. It’s a very tender-hearted film, but explicit film that has provoke both praise and condemnation, and I can’t wait for the chance to show this film in San Francisco!”

In July 2006 DAMON AND HUNTER was name Best Documentary at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in Melbourne Australia, but was subsequently banned by the Australian government from showing a the 2006 QueerDOC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival held this September in Sydney Australia. The film went on to be named to several “Best of 2006″ lists, including Fleshbot’s Top 10 Erotic Gay Films of 2006

Comstock Films produces award-winning, documentary-style erotic films that acknowledge the role of sex in human relationships, depict it graphically, and celebrate the power and joy of sexual pleasure and emotional intimacy. Comstock Films titles have enjoyed worldwide recognition as outstanding achievements in cinema, appearing in festivals and taking home prizes in Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany and here in the US.

Other Comstock Films titles include MARIE AND JACK: A HARDCORE LOVE STORY , named Best Documentary and Best Overall at the 2002 SinCine New York Erotic Film Festival and Best of the Fest at the 2002 Sexual Health and Pleasure Film Festival; XANA AND DAX: WHEN OPPOSITES ATTRACT , named Hottest Straight Sex Scene at the 2006 Emma Awards for feminist porn in Toronto, Canada; and the just released MATT AND KHYM: BETTER THAN EVER, Comstock Films’ first title featuring a Bay Area Couple.

From Fleshbot:

While we relied on our heart (and certain other parts) to come up with our top ten crush objects of the year, we used more a rather objective method to determine our list of 2006’s best gay porn movies: a formula which involved the number of days each movie remained in or near our DVD players; the number of times people asked to borrow our copy; the number of days (or weeks) it took said people to return it; approximate number of ounces of lube we went through while “reviewing” it; and the inverse coefficient of the number of times the word “hot” was used it its press release. So you see, it’s all very scientific.#8 DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER
Though they’re no longer a couple, watching Comstock Films’ porn verité exploration of the relationship between then-boyfriends Hunter James and Damon DeMarco is more than an exercise in wistful nostalgia: the perfect antidote to the glut of overprocessed smut crowding the porn shelves, the conversational, intimate “Damon and Hunter” is both the kind of film your straight girlfriends will keep trying to steal from you as well as a rare look of what porn stars look like when they’re not having sex like porn stars. And any porn DVD that was banned in Australia deserves a space on anyone’s Best Of list as far as we’re concerned.

Butch Harrison, Mannet’s Editor in Chief says, “Thousands of male adult titles are released each year. And, of those releases, our favorites have been pulled out of the quagmire to compile this list, The ManNet 100, selected by ManNet’s editorial team.”

Making the Mannet list caps a stellar year for Comstock Films’ first gay title.

In July 2006 DAMON AND HUNTER played to an overflow crowd and was name Best Documentary at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival in Melbourne Australia.

Two months later the film encountered controvery when it was banned by the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification from showing a the 2006 QueerDOC Gay and Lesbian Film Festival held in September in Sydney Australia.

In October DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER drew record crowds at it’s hometown premiere at the New York CineKink Film Festival.

In November, we were invited to submit the film to the !f Istanbul/AFM International Independent Film Festival for inclusion in the in the Rainbow Film program in the 2007 edition of the festival, taking place Feb 15-25, 2007 in Istanbul, Turkey.

But my favorite part is this last bit from Brent Blue’s ManNet Review. He almost seems like he’s not sure he believes he’s seen what he’s seen, but he’s willing to give us the benifit of the doubt!:

Shot by Tony and Peggy Comstock, the scene here is revealing and trusting by Damon and Hunter in allowing the viewer into their private life. The scene is rather short and purposely unglamorous, so it’s often hard to know what really went on, but it is clear that these two men are doing something different than just fucking for the camera. There is emotion here, not faked, not acted, but truthful. It’s an alternative to porn. Not better, not worse, just a different side.

Thanks Brent, Butch, and everyone else at ManNet for naming DAMON AND HUNTER as one of the 100 best of the year!

It’s official! Blowfish is the first US retailer to officially place an order for MATT AND KHYM: BETTER THAN EVER, and we couldn’t be happier!

Blowfish was the first US retailer to pick up MARIE AND JACK: A HARDCORE LOVE STORY (dig the old cover!), and the first retailer to pick up XANA AND DAX: WHEN OPPOSITES ATTRACT and DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER.

But then, that’s what Blowfish does – they find the good stuff, and they find first. Blowfish is where I first discovered theVixen Creations String of Pearls. Blowfish is where I discovered the wonderful work of erotic jeweler Jullian Snelling. And it was back in around 1995, after seeing that not even Blowfish had the kind of sex films that I wanted to see that I concluded that they must simply not exist and that I’d have to make them myself.

Indeed, aside from pleasing myself, one of my thoughts as I embarked on this quixotic journey was “I want to make something that people who shop at Blowfish might like.”

Anyone want to make a bet who will be the first to carry ASHLEY AND KISHA?

It’s taken for granted that people watch porn with one hand on the remote, and the idea that you’d watch an erotic film straight through from the opening title to the closing credits without fast-forwarding is pretty much unheard of.

In fact, if you read Violet Blue’s or Freddy and Eddy’s advice for newcomers, both both suggest watch with your thumb hovering over the fast-foward button so that when (not if) the video becomes boring and/or off-putting, you can zip past the offending material before it kills mood.

With that in mind, you can imagine how delighted I was to read Alex Thatcher’s lovely review of DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER in the December edition of Australia’s Eros Association Magazine:

In an age when it’s easier than ever to see sexually explicit imagery, I slipped the Damon and Hunter DVD into my player with the usual emotional void and jumped into bed with my boyfriend, ready to watch another empty “fuck he’s hot – let’s just get off” porn flick.I’ve never actually watched a porn movie from start to finish without jumping my partner within the first five minutes, so you can imagine my surprise when I actually saw the end credits of this film.

I’ve got nothing against a good quickie. But it’s not the only way to have sex, and it’s not the only way to make a film about sex– a collection of little thinly connected scenes that are designed to turn you on, get you off, and let you get cleaned up, all inside of fifteen minutes.

When Peggy and I see a mainstream film we really like, we’ll sit through the closing credits just to make the experience last a little longer, and I think it’s sad that we’ve gotten to the point where peoples expectations of porn have become so narrow that they’re suprised when they find a film they enjoy watching straight through to the end.

What’s the hurry?

I like sitting there in the dark as the credits roll, letting the last vapors of the director’s vision wash over me. I like taking my time in bed too. And I like that people watch my films with their hands on something other than the remote control.

And speaking of being in a hurry, if you’re in Australia and in a hurry to get a hold of DAMON AND HUNTER, or any of our other titles, try one of these retailer:

BeDaring Stores
Shop 11, 727 Gympie Road
Chermside 4032, Brisbane
Queensland, Australia

Shop 7, 75 Morayfield Rd.
Caboolture 4510
Queensland, Australia

Corner Nicklin Way & Thunderbird Drive
Bokarina ( Kawana Waters ) 4575, Sunshine Coast
Queensland, Australia

Bliss4Women
1/245 Lonsdale Street - Melbourne
Victoria, Australia

My Secret Place
126 Leichhardt Street - Spring Hill
Queensland, Australia

Out DVD
108 St Kilda Road
St Kilda VIC 3182

Polyester Books
330 Brunswick Street - Fitzroy
Victoria, Australia

Toolshed
81 Oxford Street
Darlinghurst
NSW 2010
ph:02 9332 2792
fax:02 9360 1737

Freddy and Eddy have given warm reviews to our previous efforts (apparently their screening ofXANA AND DAX got Eddie so wound up it led to their first adventure with fisting!)

But when I sent a copy of DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER over to them I already knew that hot man on man action really isn’t Freddy’s thing. The question was, “What will Eddie think?”

Well the verdit is in and the apparently Eddy liked it a lot! Says Eddy:

Damon and Hunter is Comstock Films’ third release. Damon Demarco and Hunter James are a young gay couple who are definitely smitten with each other as they re-tell their story about how they first met and how their relationship developed into such a passionate love. Throughout the film, as Damon and Hunter discuss how they became lovers there are vignettes of them making love. As you continue to watch how they explain their roles within their relationship, you learn how a gay relationship differs from the average hetero relationship. I found that other than pleasuring each other, they took the time to really communicate what they each individually wanted the other partner to do. The openness really impressed me and they truly made love with such tenderness.

And what does Freddy have to say?

Eddy was turned on more by this than 99% of straight porn. I’m not really into gay adult anything, so it’s hard for me to render a judgment on something in which I couldn’t watch the actual sex. The interviews were great, and the couple shows genuine passion and love for one another. And I can’t argue that the film made my wife EXTREMELY horny, so what’s not to like. I am puzzled by the gaining popularity of females watching gay adult (some girlfriends of my wife actually sit around and watch it together drinking wine and chatting).

Freddy might be puzzled, but I’m not. I still remember the first time I saw one of those “lesbian” layouts in Penthouse Magazine, and I remember it really turned my crank! So is it any surprise that women might get hot and bothered seeing a couple of gorgeous men go at it? I don’t think so.

(Actually my wife Peggy is one of those women who sits around with her friends and watches gay porn; only it’s not wine, it’s cheesecake and scotch.)

DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER just got its first review on the consumer review site AdultDVDTalk.com, and what makes this review especially interesting is it’s from straight man.

Last year, when we had our one day Katrina fund-raiser there was a fellow who wanted to make a donation, but had already either bought or pre-ordered everything we offer, everything except DAMON AND HUNTER. He’s a customer I know by name, and I saw his name come through with a pre-order for D&H about 12 hours into fund-raiser, followed shortly by an e-mail that said, “What the heck, it’s for a good cause!” The below is from the end of his review:

Gay or straight, Tony has created a film that has something to offer everyone, even if the sex isn’t going to be up your alley, he has still painted an enlightening look into the lives of Damon and Hunter that can entertain, and possibly educate, viewers of all sexual orientations. And he does it all with class and a beautiful visual styling that should please all viewers. After the film is over, don’t forget to check out the extras, The Making of a Love Scene feature is worth the purchase itself if you are interested in the techniques that go into making a film. Even if you keep it to yourself that you viewed it, I’d give this film a chance, I’m glad that I did.”

A lot of people seem to think that it’s the erotic charge, the “intent to arouse”, that separates art from porn. When SHORTBUS was still in pre-production, John Cameron Mitchell was quoted as saying:

“The purpose of pornography is to arouse, whereas here the priority is the emotional life of the characters. Sex has been cheapened by porn. Why can’t we not focus on sex, as porn does, but make sex part of the film?”

Since SHORTBUS’s release he’s offered that the sex in SHORTBUS was intentionally de-erotisized to make cinematic space for other emotions.

When explaining granting DESTRICTED’s and R-rating, dispite its graphic sexual content, Sir Quentin of the British Board of Film Classification said that Destricted was so explicit that it would normally attract an R18 rating but he judged that it was a work of art not intended to arouse:

“In purpose and effect, this work is plainly a serious consideration of sex and pornography as aspects of the human experience. We think that there are no grounds for depriving adults of the ability to decide themselves whether they want to see it.”

I admire John Cameron Mitchell tremendously, and I’m sure Sir Quentin is a perfectly nice fellow as well. But on this “intent to arouse” thing, I think they’re wrong, wrong, wrong. (I really think they’re wrong.)

In fact, the central concern of my films is to try to find a way to create sympathetic and engaging characters, use their relationship to create an engaging story-line, without undercutting the eroticism of the sex, which is to say, the power of the sexual image to make cocks hard and pussies wet. In fact, if anything I’m trying to find a way to use character and relationship to make the sex more erotic and arousing in my films.

With that as the central artistic concern of DAMON AND HUNTER , Flash’s very kind review is especially gratifying. It’s exciting to think that I’ve made a film where the characters and their relationship are sufficiently compelling to not only get a straight man from the beginning to the end of a gay sex film, but to earn a five-star review in the process!

So last night was it, the big hometown premiere of DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER, and I will not deny that I was both excited and nervous at the prospect of our film playing in a theater in front of a New York audience.

First let me tell you what wasn’t so great. Something was goofy with the theater’s video projection equipment, and the color rendition for DAMON AND HUNTER was a dark, muddy green version of the film’s true colors. It fairly well changed Damon’s ethnicity, plugged up the shadows in the sex footage, and gave a slight purplish cast to the jism. DAMON AND HUNTER is without a doubt the best looking film I’ve ever produced, so seeing it looking less than its best was disappointing. But the fact is, compared to all the very nice things that happened during the Passion Plays CineKink session, it hardly mattered.

The coolest thing that happened (for me) when DAMON AND HUNTER was up was sitting in the very last row of the theater, and seeing my movie through a forest of heads. It looked just like a shot out of movie where we’re in a theater, only in this movie it was my movie that was up on the screen, and it felt super cool! But as nice as that was, it wasn’t the best part of the session.

The very best part of the session is that every single one of these very sexy films got the right kind of laughs (and none of the wrong kind!). Shared laughter is the ultimate audience experience, and is what makes seeing a film in a theater so different from watching it at home. Every single one of the films made us all laugh together. Sometimes it was titilated laughter, sometimes it was nervous laughter, sometimes it was knowing laughter, but it was always the right kind of laughter, never born of the unintentional self-parady that is so much a part of the usual experience of seeing sex films. But there was one collective “uh huh!” laugh that I especially want to tell you about.

The film was Jennifer Lyon Bell’s HEADSHOT, a short erotic art film with a simple premise: we see a fellow get a blowjob, from start to finish, but all we ever really see is his face. We hear the voice of the (obviously talented) felatrix a few times, and see the back of her head briefly when she first introduces herself, but other than that, all we see is the lucky young man’s face as she sucks him off.

The “uh huh!” laugh came about two thirds of the way in. She’s found her rhythm and he’s settle back to enjoy the ride. His eyes are closed when suddenly they pop open wide and he looks down, as if to say “Whoa, woah! Now that feels really good!”

Of course we all know that moment, from one side of it or the other. “Yeah, baby yeah. That feels so good. Don’t stop… Woah! Wow! That feels really good…” and you have to look down to see what sort of delicious trick is being played! And in that instant of collective recognition of 150 or so people thinking “yeah, I’ve been there” the audience let out a knowing “uh huh” sort of chortle in one collective voice.

Whether we suck dick, or get our dicks sucked, or both, in that one subtle cinematic moment, all of us saw ourselves up on the screen, all of us saw our own story being told, all of us were moved to give a collective, affirmative and apprecitive response–and it was magic! For me it was the highlight of the festival!

Were there moments like that in DAMON AND HUNTER? I think so. I hope so. But the truth is I was too self-conscious to really be in those moments myself. Afterwards so people said some very nice things, but it was all a bit of a blur, and frankly, after week away from my wife, I was eager to get packed up and get home to make some “uh huh” moment of our own.

Many thanks to Lisa for putting DAMON AND HUNTER in such wonderful cinematic company! The Passion Plays session at CineKink was a fun, sexy, and provocative evening out!

Oy, where do I start? (cue Julie Andrews…)

Thanks to our wonderful sponsor, PjurUSA we printed up 250 posters and 2500 postcards in advance of this weekend premiere of DAMON AND HUNTER at the New York CineKink Film Festival.

And because Ell told me she had such fun and received so much love and support when she put out posters and flyers in Melbourne I thought it would be a good idea if I went out and postered for CineKink. After all, it’s a home town premiere, and there’s nothing like the personal touch, right?

So Saturday I came into town, posters and postcards in a big box, first stop Chelsea, which has (in many people’s eyes) replaced Greenwich Village as the gay ground zero in Manhattan.

Chelsea is fabulous. The streets are filled with fabulous looking men, there are fabulous boutiques and restaurants. Chelsea looks and feels like what you think gay New York would look and feel like. Chelsea does not care that you have a movie. Not even if it’s your home town premiere. Not even if it has beautiful young men kissing it. My sister and I schlepped around, hearing “no” more often than “yes”.

I also managed to dump the cart four times. It’s a toss up between the time that I hit the older gay man in the ankle with the cart and then dumped the contents all over the Southwest corner of Ninth Ave and 23rd (fourth dumpage), and the time I spilled all 250 poster and 2500 postcards over the narrow foyer of the porn shop on 21st just off Eighth (first dumpage) for low point of the evening. I know that a few people said nice things, but the specifics are lost in the haze of people who were disdainfully disinterested, or even down right surly.

We caught a cab back to my neighborhood (Hells Kitchen) and tried few places between where the cab let us off and my apartment. They were nice, they were interested. We had dinner, and as a last stop I put a poster and cards in the gay bar on Ninth between 45th and 46th. Everyone there down right friendly.

Sunday morning we had a diner breakfast and then when schlepping up Ninth Ave. I had resolved to ask at every place we past, no matter the toll it might take on my (already low) spirits. But instead of another ass-kicking, everyone smiled and said “sure!” and “congratulations” and “do you have tape”. Every Arab-run bodega said yes; every Korean run beauty salon said yes; every pizza place said yes, nearly every resturaunt. The cobbler said yes, the frame shop said yes, the barber said yes. By late morning posters for DAMON AND HUNTER were up and down both sides of Ninth ave, from 42nd to 57th, and I had received a bunch of well-wishes, good-lucks and way-to-goes.

My sister had a singing thing to go do up town, so I said goodbye to her and caught a cab downtown to the Village. Would the Village be more like Chelsea, or more like Hells Kitchen?

Well I’m pleased to say that the Village was like Hells Kitchen. Shop keepers and bartenders told me “tear down what ever’s out of date and put of your poster”, or “I have a lot of customers I think would really like to see this, can I have a few more cards?” I criss-crossed Bleeker and Christopher streets, Greenwich Ave, and Hudson, went up and down West 4th twice. Every where people were nice and interested and congratulatory. They made me feel like I had accomplished something special by having my movie play in New York! It was fun, and my spirits were buoyed!

Monday I made hand-deliveries to editors at HX and Gay City and Next. I stopped by both Babeland stores and got a warm welcome, and they turned me onto a few joints in their neigborhoods that were hip to having the poster up. I went to the Pioneer theater and they were nice enough to let me put out cards (they rent my movies at their Two Boots Video). I stopped by Kim’s Video on St. Mark’s Place, and all the cool indie kids said “congrats!” and “good luck”!

Then on the way home I visited my lab and my telecine house, and everyone came out and clapped me on the back. “Best Documentary! Good for you!” Higher-ups were fetched to see the poster, and everyone had a good laugh at the big “Banned” red dot. Not many people shot porn or docs on film anymore, and these were just the people who could appreciated what a risk I took shooting D&H on film. All the NYU film students who came in, their 100′ daylight spools of 16mm in hand, were eager to take cards, and excited to meet a real live DIY filmmaker who actually shoots film and makes a living.

I got back to my neighborhood, got a meatball hero and a beer. I ate the sandwich and drank the beer, and was asleep by nine o’clock and didn’t wake till nine this morning. Tonight is the opening party for CineKink. I’ve got a few posters left so I suppose I’ll take them. There are just enough postcards for the screening itself.

The last few days feels a bit mad. I actually lost a notch on my belt from all the walking around, and there were some moment where I thought I must be a bit crazy going door to door in Manhattan and with my poster and cards and DVDs. But here now, after three solid days, I think it was the right thing to do. Google results for “Comstock Films” have spiked and so have sales, so maybe people are actually seeing the poster, going home, and getting on their computer to find out who we are.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking about the word “shameless”. One of the things I love about making my movies is when it looks as though the people are so lost in their pleasure that they’ve gone entirely beyond caring that the camera is there. Somewhere Saturday late evening I stopped caring about how silly I felt trudging up and down Eighth Ave with my little cart. Not caring didn’t make it fun, but it did allow me to keep going. I was shameless, and that shamelessness took me into the very nice days that I had Sunday and Monday, and now a few hundred more people know about DAMON AND HUNTER and Comstock Films, and that’s a lot better than a sharp stick in the eye!