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by Viviane on 11/05/2010

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  • Facebook and adult social networking: A dream that’s all wet | Violet Blue| ZDNet – That’s what a perfect Faceporn might look like. All of the good aspects of Facebook: finding people with similar interests that aren’t necessarily about sex, but with whom you could also share a dirty gallery with for fun or… or more. Sharing links and videos with friends you’ve chosen in your own network, without the fear of censors deleting your posts without notice.
  • To NSFW or not to NSFW? (NSFW) – Roger Ebert’s Journal – Now as to the problem of the workplace. I understand there will be pictures on a computer screen that will be offensive. I get that. Why will they be offensive? Perhaps because they foreground a worker’s sexual desires, and imply similar thoughts about co-workers. Is that what’s happening with the blog entry on Hefner? Is anyone reading it for sexual gratification? I doubt it. That’s what bothers me about so many of the New Puritans. They think I have a dirty mind, but I think I have a healthy mind. It takes a dirty mind to see one, which is why so many of these types are valued as censors or online police.
  • ‘Client 9′ Filmmaker Focuses On Spitzer’s Foes : NPR – Filmmaker Alex Gibney’s new documentary, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, suggests that Spitzer’s demise wasn’t just about sex — that the many enemies Spitzer made on Wall Street and in the New York state capital at Albany may have contributed to his political demise.
  • Oakland home to nation’s first transgender trial judge | SF Gate – Oakland resident Vicki Kolakowski became the first transgender trial judge in the country when she won Alameda County’s vacant seat on the county’s Superior Court bench in yesterday’s election.

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10/23/2010
7:30 PM

brettmelanie Pre release screening: Brett and Melanie: The Erotic Documentary with Tony Comstock

A sneak preview of the seventh in Tony Comstock’s ongoing Real People, Real Live, Real Sex documentary series, Brett and Melanie: Boi Meets Girl is an exploration of sexual pleasure in committed relationships and the problematic place of explicit sexuality in cinema. ”Brett and Melanie” depicts a butch/femme couple, and opens up questions about strength and vulnerability in the context of how we portray and interpret gender. Throughout Brett and Melanie’s interview, there is a constant dance of who is strong for whom, of who is vulnerable and who nurtures; and this dance continues when Brett and Melanie make love.

By including frank footage of Brett and Melanie’s lovemaking along with their candid testimony, the film also opens up questions about the meaning of reality in the context of documentary filmmaking, and explodes preconceptions about the place of sexuality and eroticism in cinema.

Curated by Colin Weatherby, and followed with a panel discussion exploring cinema, sexuality, gender, and love with Velvet Park Managing Editor Diana Cage, Cinekink Film Festival Director Lisa Vandever, and Tony Comstock.

Location: Union Docs, 322 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (Plan your route using Hopstop)
Cost: $9 suggested donation

Union Docs listing

About Brett and Melanie: Boi Meets Girl
2010
Length: 54 mins.
Acquisition Format: Super16mm film and 24p video
Presentation format: 24p DVD

“Brett and Melanie: Boi Meets Girl” is the seventh in Tony Comstock’s ongoing Real People, Real Life, Real Sex documentary series, an exploration of sexual pleasure in committed relationships and the problematic place of explicit sexuality in cinema.

“Brett and Melanie” depicts a butch/femme couple, and opens up questions about strength and vulnerability in the context of how we portray and interpret gender. Throughout Brett and Melanie’s interview, there is a constant dance of who is strong for whom, of who is vulnerable and who nurtures; and this dance continues when Brett and Melanie make love.

By including frank footage of Brett and Melanie’s lovemaking along with their candid testimony, the film also opens up questions about the meaning of reality in the context of documentary filmmaking, and explodes preconceptions about the place of sexuality and eroticism in cinema.

About Tony Comstock
In a world awash in sexualized imagery, why does so little of it speak to the common pleasurable reality of sex? A filmmaker and photographer for more than 20 years Tony Comstock has explored this and other aspects of the human condition. Subjects of Comstock’s films have included love, sex, 9/11, indigenous fisheries, hurricanes, refugees, HIV/AIDS orphans, and the visualization of God. His current focus is the Real People, Real Life, Real Sex series. Reaction to these films has ranged from film festival laurels and critical and popular acclaim, to police raids on screenings and intimidation of DVD retailers.

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05/27/2010
6:30 PM

Location: Walter Reade Theater, 65th Streeet near Amsterdam Avenue map

When filmmaker Liz Canner took a job editing erotic videos for a pharmaceutical company’s drug trials, she was permitted to film the company for her own documentary. Her employer was trying to develop the first Viagra drug for women to treat a brand-new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). But are her employer and other medical companies actually taking advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion-dollar profits? Orgasm Inc. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, and desire.

Info at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s website

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Bill and Desiree: Love Is Timeless (2008)
(Real People, Real Life, Real Sex series)
Studio: Comstock Films
Director: Tony Comstock
Cast: Bill and Desiree

billanddesiree Bill and Desiree: Love Is Timeless

I didn’t know quite what to expect when I received “Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless” by Comstock Films for review.  Would I enjoy watching “older lovers” in their “later years” making love on film?  Well, within the first few minutes my doubts were eased as I watched Bill passionately recount how he and Desiree first met and how he was “blown away” by her “beautiful genitals” in the pre-sex interview.  I was immediately drawn into the film through Bill’s joyful candor and enthusiasm, who is like a school-boy enamored by new love.  I thought: “This is not going to be your typical film.”  And, it definitely isn’t.  Bill and Desiree have much to share with the viewer through their celebration of sex, love and desire, with a few erotic revelations thrown in that might surprise you as well.

Bill and Desiree are an attractive 50-something couple who are recreational naturists and happened to meet at a “clothing optional” event.  Bill is charming, endearing and gregarious; a bohemian poet who is thrilled to be in the prime of his life.  Desiree is exquisite (Bill refers to her as a “Goddess”) with a lovely glowing face, expressive eyes and an animated smile.  You can immediately tell that they are each other’s “soul mates” as they reminisce about their “delirious” love making on their first real date in Sam Taylor Park under the Redwoods where they are stumbled upon by a spotted-owl researcher.

During the interview, they talk about the importance of human touch and how they stay connected through what Desiree calls “a daily nourishment”.  Bill also discusses how mainstream pornography and sexual “how-to” advice can be damaging as it sets unrealistic goals to perform and try to achieve magic every time.  “Peak experiences are just that,” says Bill, “Not every experience is Mount Everest”.  What I learned through watching Bill and Desiree is how accommodating and self-less they give themselves to each other, not always interested in orgasm for themselves, but delighted to give each other pleasure and enjoy what they receive with so much gratitude.  This is the way relationships should be and I have to thank Bill and Desiree for sharing their respect, love and passion with the world, for it is so inspiring and wonderful to see.

Another aspect of their relationship is that they approach their lovemaking as an adventure, constantly trying new things.  Bill laughs as he tells the viewer about Desiree making love to him with her strap-on, then later in the film gives her dildo a blow-job as they giggle blissfully.  They use a lot of variation during their lovemaking scene, switching sexual techniques and types of foreplay with penetration and back again.  This takes the pressure off Bill to constantly perform as their desire gains momentum through sensual valleys and rapturous peaks, building until their ultimate climax.

Everything they do, they do with exhilaration and wild abandon.  They explore their sexual love like children who are delighted and amazed by everything they see and touch.  I had a perma-smile welded on my face as I watched them make love with such tenderness: their smiles, laughter and joy radiating out of the screen to affect me as well.  It was so powerful and beautifully poignant to watch their sweet ecstatic moans and tearful orgasms as they convulsed with ecstasy.

This film could not have been made by anyone else.  Tony Comstock’s camera-style invites you in-close and intimate-focusing on the joy on their faces, the tenderness with which they hold each other’s hands, the gaze in their eyes as they immerse themselves in their shared moment of bliss.  Comstock uses what I call a “haptic” style of cinematography, in that the lighting is soft and muted with a somewhat diffused quality and close-up sensuality that evokes the sense of touch.  Unlike mainstream porn that is glaring, stark and in your face, Comstock’s films seductively roam the bodies of their participants like a lover’s touch, moving in and out of focus, in a way that highlights the physical beauty between two lovers and celebrates sexual intimacy as an art form in itself.  In this way, Bill and Desiree become more than just the components of their sexual moving parts, as their emotional, spiritual and amorous bond transcends the screen.

“Bill and Desiree: Love Is Timeless” is a magnificent film: a sexual tapestry of touch, unconditional love, and vivacious desire.  This film should be a part of the curriculum in Sex-Ed classes and is a must-see for all couples regardless of age.  It will inspire couples how to stay passionate, vibrant and innovative in their approach to love and sex, no matter at what stage they may find themselves on their journey through life.

Comstock Films: Real People, Real Life, Real Sex.

You can buy Bill and Desiree: Love Is Timeless (Real People, Real Life, Real Sex series) Bill and Desiree: Love Is Timeless from Amazon.com

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