“Straight women would show up to the transgender or lesbian films,” the Fest’s curator, Maxime Cervulle, told XBIZ, “and while learning about their particular sex cultures, enjoy a different kind of porn.”
Among the most popular films at the Fest, which ran Oct. 9-12, were the two Erika Lust productions, “Five Hot Stories for Her” and the newer “Barcelona Sex Project.”
“They are very smart and sensitive films,” Cervulle said. “The first is a compilation of five short narratives with strong and catchy storylines and the second one is a documentary about the way people relate to sex and how it is connected to their broader life. Erika Lust is a true inspired feminist filmmaker, and we are glad that her cinema got to be better known in France.”
In the transgender female-to-male niche, Buck Angel’s films received a lot of attention, Cervulle said.
“What I found amazing about Buck Angel’s films, whether that would be ‘Buckback Mountain’ or ‘V for Vagina,’ is how he manages to appeal to all kinds of audiences, whatever their gender or sexuality,” he said.
The films generally inspired the audience, some of whom would come up to Fest’s organizers at the end of screenings and tell the organizers they feel empowered to make their own adult films, Cervulle said.
“In a way the Paris Porn Film Fest is also the festival of the porn misfists,” he added. “We are screening films directed by people who have been sex-ploited, under-represented or not represented at all.
“When you think about it, it is amazing that women, transgendered people, lesbians, people of color have taken the camera and filmed sex from their own subjective point of view and experience. And that they have done so in a way that is so different from that of traditional mainstream porn.”
Organizers are already working on the next Paris Porn Film Fest and will soon send an official call for films and contributions online at ParisPornFilmFest.com or via the official MySpace page.
