Sexually explicit Shortbus premieres at Toronto film festiv

[blacksunshineaz]

Sexually explicit Shortbus premieres at Toronto film festival
8, 2006 - 6:20 pm

By: LEE-ANNE GOODMAN

TORONTO (CP) - The lights had barely dimmed at a media screening of the controversial "Shortbus" at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday when a man stormed out, declaring that a three-way homosexual sex scene featuring a raunchy rendition of God Bless America was going too far.

It was exactly the type of outraged reaction to sex that director John Cameron Mitchell was trying to combat with "Shortbus," a sexually explicit film that features actors having actual sex and starring Canadian broadcaster and actress Sook-Yin Lee.

"What pissed me off about it is that it was identified as porn without people having seen it," Mitchell said of his film at a news conference later Friday.

"Porn is meant to arouse and is watched to be aroused, and this film explores the other layers of sex . . . obviously sex is really just another language with which we try to connect, and the film is about connection."

But it's not surprising that a film that began with a casting call for actors interested in participating in explicit sex scenes would engender some uneasiness, even landing Lee in serious hot water at the CBC.

Lee, host of CBC Radio's Saturday afternoon pop culture show "Definitely Not The Opera," was threatened with dismissal by the public broadcaster for her participation in the film.

But director Francis Ford Coppola, actress Julianne Moore and Yoko Ono, among other noted personalities, came to her defence and the CBC backed down.

"Very many people came to our support," Lee, who plays a sexually frustrated sex therapist in the film, said Friday.

"To their credit, (the CBC) allowed me to do the movie. I don't know if I would have been allowed to do the movie if I was, I don't know, working for CNN. They've given me their blessing."

Her bosses are so supportive now, Lee says, that they're even coming to a raunchy party Sunday night at a downtown Toronto club rumoured to be featuring so-called grope rooms.

Somewhat surprisingly because of its sexually explicit content, "Shortbus" has won commercial release in North America through Canadian distributor ThinkFilm - an indication, perhaps, that times are changing regarding public acceptance of sex and sexuality on the silver screen.

Jay Brannan, the actor who plays the reluctant male model, Ceth, in the film, says that's exactly why he wanted to be part of "Shortbus."

"I kind of wanted a film like this to exist," he said. "I come from a very conservative Southern Baptist religious background and I don't know why it is that we're taught to think that our bodies and our sexuality are something dirty, and something not to be talked about and discussed."

Brannan was one of a handful of actors picked for the film after Mitchell viewed their audition tapes. Once chosen, Mitchell said, he had the actors cast secret ballots so he knew who was sexually attracted to whom.

A No. 1 was "no way" while a No. 4 meant "definitely," and Mitchell respected his actors' desires and cast the movie accordingly.

"No one was asked to do anything they didn't want to do," he said of his followup to the cult hit "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

The actors then spent weeks in New York getting to know one another, performing trust exercises, playing games and simply hanging out.

In the end, the sex scenes in "Shortbus" are so gymnastic and comical at times - they call to mind some of the cartoonish violence in the Kill Bill movies - that the audience quickly gets caught up in the plot and starts to view the sex scenes as obvious metaphors for something more meaningful.

Take, for example, what is sure to be one of the most talked-about cinematic scenes in many years: that of the depressed and remote James, played by Paul Dawson, fellating himself to climax in a marvel of yogic flexibility.

To hear Mitchell tell it, the scene was not meant to shock as much as it was to show just how desperate James was to be self-sufficient, to need no one - and how truly alone he is spiritually and emotionally.

"That scene ended in tears," Mitchell points out.

As for Dawson, he said he had to go into training to perform the act - three months of practising, he said, that ended up being some of the most pleasurable job preparation in his life.

"I vaguely remembered attempting the feat at least once or twice in adolescence," he said.

And when he started the training program?

"I realized I was a lot more flexible as a kid."

[blacksunshineaz]

Trailers are here

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2755199

[Happy Boy]

the scene was not meant to shock as much as it was to show just how desperate James was to be self-sufficient, to need no one - and how truly alone he is spiritually and emotionally.

"That scene ended in tears," Mitchell points out.

i don't know...maybe it is just me, but i don't think i am any more spiritually or emotionally alone than the next guy. i certainly never cried about the fact that i could do this (though there have been some orgasms that were so good that they brought a tear to my eye! )

[jamison]

^ I was thinking the same thing happy. I'm not interested in ss'ing because of any emotional or spiritual void, but just because I think it would be cool as hell to give myself a blowjob whenever I feel like it.

By the way blacksunhineAZ, I found this pic. I'm sure you've already seen it, but it's probably the closest I've seen so far and it looks authentic.

[blacksunshineaz]

the scene was not meant to shock as much as it was to show just how desperate James was to be self-sufficient, to need no one - and how truly alone he is spiritually and emotionally.

"That scene ended in tears," Mitchell points out.

i don't know...maybe it is just me, but i don't think i am any more spiritually or emotionally alone than the next guy. i certainly never cried about the fact that i could do this (though there have been some orgasms that were so good that they brought a tear to my eye! )

There is a perception that guys that selfsuck have something wrong with them, and that is demonstrated in several medical journal articles I have seen as well as threads about this subject on various message boards. But I've seen that there a way more guys into this than I ever thought and I think over time it will become more "acceptable". I give it about 5-10 more years and it'll be quite common, as long as there aren't any side-effects like guys getting crippled in their old age because they practiced autofellatio.

The film is a work of fiction, and just because something is presented to us doesn't mean we should believe any of it. I somehow doubt that anybody would feel they are so detached from other people that they have to rely on this masturbation technique to find fulfillment...

[blacksunshineaz]

^ I was thinking the same thing happy. I'm not interested in ss'ing because of any emotional or spiritual void, but just because I think it would be cool as hell to give myself a blowjob whenever I feel like it.

By the way blacksunhineAZ, I found this pic. I'm sure you've already seen it, but it's probably the closest I've seen so far and it looks authentic.

Oh, it's authentic. That picture was featured in Life Magazine in the 1940's, I think, in a photo essay about the flexibility of the human body. I've seen a couple more pictures from that set but this is the most intriguing. The only thing though, is that the girl (Imogene Winchester I believe is her name) is not really in the position to make oral-genital contact. Not to say she couldn't, but this reminds me of when I started attempting to selfsuck and I could touch it to my forehead but it took quite a while before I could position myself so I could get it close enough to my mouth to do anything.

I don't know if it's appropriate to post that particular image here, since it is a nude photo of a minor. I know it was published in a mainstream magazine many years ago but I am afraid it may get this site shut down, which is something I don't want to see. What does everybody think about that?

[jamison]

whoops, didn't know it was a minor. I took it down just in case.

[seahorses]

what an interesting thought provoking topic. if nothing else it's also got people talking - and in as much, the film director has achieved his aim. My view is that In essence we who indulge in selfsucking to gratify ourselves are being selfish, but we're no different to the person who wanks, treats themselves to an ice cream, eats the last Rolo or any other form of indulgence; selfishness is a naturally occurring trait and not a sin. I mean, if you were in an aircraft that was about to crash and you had the only parachute, would you give it away? No; it's the guilt thing again, others trying to make you feel guilty for not sharing because of their own greed - they also want what you have, as greed is another naturally occurring trait. It's all to do with the survival thing. However, I feel that if we indulge to the exclusion of everything else then we possibly have a problem. I admit to being greedy and selfish and I don't give a fuck. In fact I'm so greedy and selfish that I also have a full sex life with my wife, I never have a headache; and when we get it on it's always emotional (I've got to have all the trimmings!) and as long as we're not talking Hebrew mythology (can't handle that God stuff), I'll go for spiritual too.
Blacksunshine feels that in 5-10 years there will be more guys selfishly practising autofellatio, but unfortunately, I disagree; we are fast becoming sloth's (yet another sin) indulging in computer games in stead of exercise and yoga and the population is becoming clinically obese through selfishly over indulging in bad diets, but as long as they're happy.............

[phil]

thanks for your thoughts seahorses...I always enjoy your posts.....but I think I am with BSA as far as selfing becoming more common, mainstream and accepted within 5 to 10 years

I base that on the way autofellatio has taken off in the last 10 years that the internet has been around

having lived through the 70s and much of the 80s when all I could find was the occasional lick by ron jeremy in mainstream porn...this is so much more common...

even after catching up w al in the early 90s and watching the blip in af in gay cinema through directors chi chi larue, jerry douglas, edward james and others in the mid 90s, I see so much more of a community these days - though we miss jay's room in yahoo for a reliable place to see folks online -

I think to those under 25 or 30 selfsucking seems accepted as another form of masturbation..and the joy of having fans of selfsucking too, both male and female, I think is spurring interest.

I have also chatted w folks mainly young who say they tried it because they saw others doing it on the internet, and I think that is another good sign.

Anyway, my two cents and worth about as much,

It is all good, enjoy,

Phil

[babarseraglio]

i m glad this conversation is having a second life (i tried to initiate it here:
viewtopic.php?p=3911&highlight=#3911)
and i m glad a film-maker is trying to treat this issue, no matter how biased it may seem.
but the movie mainly deals with people who seem to have somehow got lost in the way, that's why his vision of autofellatio is thus presented as it is in the movie.
i mainly agree with what you say about af and selfishness: it can"t boil down to one answer anyway and as long as everybody's happy in his life - whether sexually or sentimentally - well, that's the only thing that matters right?
But sometimes in your life you tend to overthink and interpret things you shouldn't (has anybody seen "signs and wonders"?)...and this is why i d raised this question in a previous post...

[seahorses]

[quote="phil"]thanks for your thoughts seahorses...I always enjoy your posts.....but I think I am with BSA as far as selfing becoming more common, mainstream and accepted within 5 to 10 years

Firstly Phil, please don't take anything I write too seriously; by and large I have a tendency to be flippant and often write tongue in cheek (wait till my novel comes out!) Secondly, and maybe surprising, I agree with what you say about guy's being inspired by seeing others perform, because that's how I got interested, through a picture in a mag and then a film. My point really is that in spite of the wealth of inspiring material that's available theses days, will the youth of today be in any fit state to take advantage of it, bearing in mind the prediction that by 2010, 1 in 3 will be clinically obese? However, don't forget I'm selfish and don't really care what happens to the youth in 2010; if they're too fat to get off the couch and suck, they'll be too fat to come round and smash my windows for anything I might write about them,

[blacksunshineaz]

I first experimented with selfsucking when I was 13-14, which was in 1987-1988. It never occurred to me that what I was doing was something other people might be doing to. Since all I could do was lick it, I surmised that actually sucking it was impossible and I stopped trying.

It wasn't until I was in college that I discovered that there are guys out there that do it too, and some could do it quite well. Unfortunately, I was no longer as flexible, but that was to change.

I really wish I knew more about it when I was younger, but I wasn't introduced to the internet until 1994 and over the years, I've discovered a plethora of information on the subject. If I knew then what I know now, I'd probably be doing it as well as Al.

There was a perception that something like this is impossible, and I think that a lot of people still think that. I'm sure that a lot of guys have tried but since they didn't succeed the first time out they came to the conclusion that it isn't possible, just like I did when I was younger.

After seeing that it is really possible, I started working on it and was able to go from 14 inches away to sucking the top of the head. Some guys can do it right away (lucky bastards) and others have to work at it. I fall in the second group. But it goes to show you that if you're in reasonable health, you can do it if you put your mind (and back) to it.

I've been looking online and I have bookmarked hundreds of threads all over the internet about people discussing it, and I see that there are a ton of guys who can do it. I think most guys assume it isn't possible but the web has helped changed that attitude and I have seen over the past couple of years that the interest in this subject is growing.

The film "Shortbus" isn't going to change the world much I fear as it isn't going to be a mainstream film that a lot of people are going to see, but I've heard a lot about it and I think the word of mouth is going to make more people know about it. I haven't seen the movie, and I don't know if I will, but those that do see it, I feel are going to come away with one observation -- "I just saw a guy giving himself a blowjob!".

Now in regards to the selfishness of it, who cares. I never had a feeling that I had to resort to selfsucking because I couldn't get anybody else. I was single at the time and rarely dated, but now I'm in a serious long term relationship with plans to get married and I'm still very into selfsucking. I see is as just a method of masturbation. I don't have a latent desire to suck another guy's cock (if I did, I'd do something about it). I've recently found a sex discussion board for teens with several threads about selfsucking and the overwhelming response was "that's gay!" or "that's disgusting" or "you must be desperate". It's sad to see such a hostile reception, but with all things that are strange or different, it will take time for people to get it and get rid of their biases and misconceptions.

[seahorses]

I first experimented with selfsucking.......

There was a perception that something like this is impossible, and I think that a lot of people still think that. I'm sure that a lot of guys have tried but since they didn't succeed the first time out they came to the conclusion that it isn't possible, just like I did when I was younger.

Sea
Once it was perceived that the world was flat and a man lived in the moon; as for a man actually walking on it......well! It was also believed that no athlete would ever break the 4 minute mile.

I've recently found a sex discussion board for teens with several threads about selfsucking and the overwhelming response was "that's gay!" or "that's disgusting" or "you must be desperate". It's sad to see such a hostile reception, but with all things that are strange or different, it will take time for people to get it and get rid of their biases and misconceptions.

Sea
It's a bit like nose picking: loads of people do it, but few are going to own up. With others it could be the thought of swallowing cum, their own or anybody else's, it took me a while to get my mind round that, even though I'd been selfing for some time, but there again there was a time I wouldn't drink tea with out sugar!

[blacksunshineaz]

Hey I just watched this movie tonight. I guess I could have waited for it to come out on video, but I just had to see a guy trying to suck himself on the big screen.

I'm not going to bother with a full review here, but it was better than I thought it would be although it's a rather sad movie, delving into the topics of personal relationships and suicide.

I was somewhat surprised by the number of senior citizens in the audience. I wonder what they thought of it...

Paul Dawson was only able to get his cock to his lips but he cums on his face. I can't help but think he resembles a brown-haired version of the Foo Fighter's drummer, Taylor Hawkins. Anyway, it was fun to see this and I hope the exposure of his act gets more guys interested in what we're all here for.

[aleingang69]

Hey guys,
I think I said this in another post already - I would recommend Shortbus to everyone (OK - maybe not my mom). I's got some sad and difficult moments, but it's a happy ending and it's all about love, community and sexual healing.
I loved it!
AL