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!

Coming next month, the first ever public screening of MATT AND KHYM: BETTER THAN EVER. Yay!

Pinched, Amsterdam June 2
Feminist Fantasies

An evening that focuses on female sexuality and pornography. Jennifer Lyon Bell (Blue Artichoke Films & Rated X Festival) will create a film program especially for PINCHED. Marije Lieuwens(Beperkt Houdbaar) will express her views on female pornography in a column that she presents at this theme night.

Programme:
“Matt and Khym: Better Than Ever” (Comstock Films, Dir: Tony Comstock)
“One Night Stand”/”Red Fetish Bathroom” (Hysterie Production, Dir: Emilie Jouvet)
“Afrodite Superstar” (Femme Chocolat, Dir: Venus Hottentot)
“Intimate Moments: More Real Orgasms” (abbywinters.com)
“Headshot” (Blue Artichoke Films, Dir: Jennifer Lyon Bell)

PINCHED is about the countermovements in the field of love, sexuality and pornography. What are the daring initiatives we can find when we look at art, theory, practice and academics? In what way can sexuality be set free from the commercial pornographic representations we find in everyday life? The current debate concerning these topics focuses on suppression and exploitation, where are the positive alternatives?
We want to take the debate to another level in a serie of theme-nights, an exhibition in collaboration with Meneer de Wit, centre for art, culture and development, and an international festival on the 21st of June.
New and daring thoughts and ideas will seduce you to look beyond that what pretends to be our ideal standard.
During these events the audience is confronted with questions like: how are women dealing with commercial representations of their sexuality, what can we learnfrom the sexualrevolution in the 60s and 70s and our main question: are we part of the sexual revolution of the 21st century? We will be looking for answers in on different levels: lectures, screenings, performance and media-art.

http://www.pinched.nl

Posted the same to a professional documentary forum that I’m fairly active on and got this:

I think it’s very complimentary that you are the only male director in the lot. You must be incredibly sexually sensitive… uh… emotionally speaking, of course.

Replied:

Tea shot out of my wife’s nose when I showed her your post. None the less, the sentiment is appreciated.

Imagine a world… where erotic films don’t offend, but arouse. Where orgasms are real and filmmakers are independent. Self Serve has curated a collection of filmmakers who aren’t afraid to keep it real, when mainstream porn fails to satisfy. Pornotopia showcases sex on the big screen that is healthy, tender, raw, real and beautiful. In Pornotopia sex is fun, everyone gets off, and pleasure is paramount.

Friday, November 30th
(Assorted shorts from Libido films will be shown throughout the evening.)

7:00pm Annie Sprinkles Amazing World of Orgasms

8:30pm Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract
Director: Tony Comstock

10:00 pm and 12 midnight
The Alibi’s Midnight Movie Madness presents:
Disco Dolls in Hot Skin: A 3D Classic Porn!

Saturday, December 1st

4:00pm The Pain Game description
Director: Cleo Dubois
& Selections from Zeus Productions

6:00pm Talk to Me Baby: A Lovers’ Guide to Dirty Talk & Role Play description
Director: Shar Rednour

7:30pm Herstory of Porn: Reel to Real description
Director: Annie Sprinkle

9:15pm Superfreak description
Director: Shine L. Houston

10:30pm The Alibi’s Midnight Movie Madness presents:
Disco Dolls & Hot Skin: A 3D Classic Porn!

Sunday, December 2nd

4:00pm Damon and Hunter: Doing it Together
Director: Tony Comstock

5:30pm Urban Friction
Libido Films Director: Jack Hafferkamp

7:00pm Hot and Bothered
Feminist Pornography Director: Becky Goldberg
& How to Fuck in High Heels
Produced by: S.I.R. Video
Director: Jackie Strano

DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER
As a part of the Cinekink Passion Plays Program
Friday, November 30 9PM
Leather Archives & Museum
6418 N. Greenview Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626
773.761.9200

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!

Did you miss the New York and San Francisco screenings of DAMON AND HUNTER, and all the other fun/sexy films in the Cinekink Film Festival? We’ll if you live near Portland, OR, you’re in luck!

DAMON AND HUNTER: DOING IT TOGETHER
Best Doc, 2006 Melbourne Underground Film Festival
Offical Selection, 2006 Sydney queerDOC, 2007 New Zealand OutFest, 2008 Torino LGBT, 2008 Tel Aviv LGBT

Cinekink Film Festival, Passion Plays Session
Clinton Street Theater
Portland, OR
November 2, 9PM
$6 at the door

MUFF poster for ASHLEY AND KISHA, courtesy of my lovely and talented wife!

“Dear Mr. Comstock,

“We would like to screen ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT at Out on Film in Atlanta. The festival will take place October 11-18, though at this point a specific screening date and time has not been determined…”

We do have a date, time, venue for ASHLEY AND KISHA at the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, and a great mini review from Australian film critic Megan Spencer:

“The sweetest thing - Ashley & Kisha is one of the sweetest love stories you’re ever likely to see committed to film. The Comstocks once again put their perfect documentary formula to good use - true love and real sex - on screen; what’s not to like?!”

ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT
10.15pm Saturday 29th September Glitch Bar in Fitzroy.

Poster coming soon!

Megan Spencer

Fresh from her role as Guest Artistic Director for Revelation Perth International Film Festival 2007, Spencer will rework the talk for the inaugural 2007 Sydney Underground Film Festival. Updating it to the 2007 underground filmmaking context, she will cite a broad range of references including Jisoe, A Dollar for The Good Ones, Zoo, Naked On The Inside, Loose Change, the work of Tony Comstock and others. She will explore the role of transgression in documentary, its definitions, and will also ask whether the term ‘underground’ can still be applied to documentary in the age of digital distribution.

I think it’s pretty ironic that in combining the most ordinary of human experiences (a couple making love) with the most shop-worn of formats (the talking head doco,) I’ve somehow managed to make transgressive cinema. Behold the magic power of the camera!

Hooray!

I woke up this morning to the news that ASHLEY AND KISHA: FINDING THE RIGHT FIT has been selected for the 2007 Melbourne Underground Film Festival, running this September in Melbourne, Australia.

DAMON AND HUNTER played two sold-out screens at last year’s festival, and was ultimately named Best Documentary, so I was worried that A&K would get tossed in the “been there, done that” file.

But no! We’re in, and the film’s already got a good bit of buzz going down under. I can’t wait for Peggy to design the poster!