Film review: Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography (2003), Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless (2008)

Recently, I attended a double-feature at The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum as part of the Sex+++ Documentary Film Series.  This presentation's guest moderator was Serpent Libertine.  She is a sex-worker and member of SWOP-Chicago.  Assisting as always, was Lisa Junkin, Education Coordinator for the Hull House Museum itself.

Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography, directed by Becky Goldberg, profiles several women who are committed to making and supporting pornography, while maintaining their feminist values — as they take on the entire industry, fight sexism, and challenge stereotypes.

Interviewing several women involved in the production, direction, performance and distribution of adult films, many good points were brought up to consider.

Here is a partial list of some things I responded to:

- Feminism has to move into Porn, to take it back.  It (porn) is not going anywhere.

- My body = my rules.

- Sex is a gift and can be fun

- Women are porn consumers

- Women like porn where the women have some agency, some choice.

- Having a good time and not being subjugated.

- It's not that porn isn't sexist.  It is.  A lot of things are sexist.

- The only way to make the porn drawer in my house worth showing - it's up to us to demand it from women filmakers.

- It's more difficult for a thinking, intelligent woman to get involved as a woman, mother, feminist, etc.  I am only responsible for my movies.

- "Women's Guide to Anal Sex" it's like "Our Bodies Ourselves" but for their ass.

- If women had influence rather than power in porn...

- I don't know why some of the most amazing women in the world have gravitated to this industry.

In a simple, powerful and direct way, this film tells the story of real women working the job of sex in positive ways.  A good example being the story of how Tristan Taormino got funding for her film in part by demonstrating the appeal of women enjoying sex.  The producer told her that if she could convince one of his performers to participate in anal sex (which she had steadfastly refused to do), then he would make the picture.  Tristan then proceded to seduce and anally pleasure this woman so much so that she orgasmed several times - right there in the office with no notice.  What I found nice about this was Tristan's honesty in challenging and overcoming the porn industry stereotypes that cannot conceive of the entertainment of women as profitable.  She not only made her point that day, but made her film and many others as a result.

There are a dozen women telling stories of freedom, success and life of agency and equality from working in a career they chose.  What could be more feminist than that?

The second film of the evening was Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless, directed by Tony Comstock.  This film documents the relationship of two people that met after turning 50.  It starts out with them describing various parts of their relationship, interspersed with occasional flashes of their lovemaking.  They discuss their philosophies, their intimacy history, their experience of each other and their experiences as a couple. 

They view love as a daily nourishment.  They see sex as another way of staying connected & honoring their love.  In one touching example, as he is entering her, she says "Missed you" even though they had been together the night before.

Tony's film style drifts in and out of focus as he closes in on or separates from his subjects.  The effect is that the viewer feels in transit between being a viewer and being directly in between the two of them.  A very nice effect.  Tony has a lot of close-ups of eyes especially when they are looking at each other or for each other.  Tony captures the moments of intimacy that are measured in the difference between one breath and the very next.  That said, we rarely hear anything from behind the camera either in the clothed or unclothed sessions.

During the lovemaking, he captures the laughter which is mostly removed from most films that show actual sex.  For example, when they are beginning their lovemaking, he is trying to remove her top.  She just stops him and takes over, saying "Honey, you're gonna ruin it."  They both fall into laughter.  On another really interesting and rewarding piece of filmaking, we see Bill place a dildo into Desiree and begins to suck it.  She covers her face and says "This is embarassing" and they both belly laugh until all the nervousness is gone.  The nervousness dissipated, they continue.  He pulls out a vibrator that she claims to not be too fond of, but she lets him try.  He then continues until she reaches a climax with his stimulation.  The beauty of that scene was the willingness on the part of Bill and Desiree to simply be with a moment of awkwardness and nervousness, acknowledge it and even celebrate it until it is no longer in the way of their ecstasy.  Tony did this film and this story a great service by leaving that in for us all to see.

The two of them fuck in just about every position imaginable.  It is a long, long, fuck.  At one point during the screening, as they were repositioning for the umpteenth time, someone in the audience sighed and said "Dear God" which drew more sighs and chuckles.  I suppose that it was nervous energy.  After sitting in a room with that sexual intimacy for 45 minutes and no chance to participate, I think a nervous laugh or two seems about right.

Afterwards, we had a discussion about both films.  Talking about Hot & Bothered, people shared differing examples of how they did or did not see feminism within the film.  There was a sort of collective question of how feminism and pornography intersect, coexist and define each other. 

No real consensus was reached, but in considering it myself I figured if women are choosing, then feminism is present.  The presence of sex is really a non-issue, because it's their work.  It is important but if we were talking about women as carpenters or accountants, would we still be struggling to reconcile their jobs with feminism?  I think that because it is sex, societal norms give people permission to assume that their negative judgment has greater value and must be taken seriously. 

In discussing Bill and Desiree, the discussion was more dynamic.  People were quick to mention the laughing in the film and how it was the first time they had heard it in a film with sex.  One man described Tony's film as 'not pornography, but a documentary about two people'.  A thought which is almost identical to a statement that Tony made about his own fims, not long ago as he described them to me.  Another person called it a 'sexual patterning fim' that normalized our view of sex. 

One fellow went off on the people in the film, saying that they were clearly up to some sort of airy-fairy, new-age agenda that he didn't appreciate.  He said that he just didn't like those two people.  I thought that he was going way overboard and even seemed a bit defensive.  Shortly thereafter, he spoke up again admitting that he was in some ways jealous of their intimacy and that he never had sex like that.  I was happy to hear him clean up his earlier judgments.  However, in response to that man's tirade about their 'agenda', another viewer noticed something about the film.  He said that if the film is intended to be about 'real people, real sex' and afterward we find ourselves talking about the people themselves, then the film had achieved what it set out to do.

I agree. 

SEX +++ FILM SERIES
2nd & 4th Tuesdays at 7PM
beginning January 27, 2009

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
800 South Halsted
312.413.5353
FREE
All are welcome!
Hull-House Museum is wheelchair accessible. To request accessibility accommodations, please call the museum two weeks prior to the event.