I attended the recent screening of Liberty in Restraint, a documentary about BDSM phtographer Noel Graydon directed by Michael Ney. The film was shown at The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum as part of the Sex+++ Documentary Film Series. This week's guest moderator was a prominent member of Chicago's BDSM community, assisted by Lisa Junkin, Education Coordinator for the Hull House Museum itself.
There were plenty of warnings going into the film because of graphic scenes of BDSM and naked bodies. People were encouraged to leave if they felt uncomfortable. As usual, the room filled up nicely with eager viewers and I had a good seat staked out. So unless the screen was going to start spewing fresh elephant dung onto the audience, I was not moving.
Judging the film strictly upon its storytelling merit or message delivery (this is a documentary) I found the film to be unfocused. There were plenty of interviews with Noel, his friends and people he has photographed. There were scenes of BDSM being performed in dungeons, photo shoots and gallery openings. There were the obligatory scenes of people walking around and making phone calls, etc. In terms of sheer cinematic presentation, it was rather flat. It is a low-budget documentary film and not Ken Burns' Baseball. Even with that understood, direction, purpose and relevance are by-products of decision making and composition - not budget. There is plenty here to work with, but the film just didn't seem to me like it knew where it wanted to go. It may be that for those who are well-versed in BDSM culture and sensibilities, this film has a clear point. But, I doubt it.
