HOMOSEXUALITY IN EXPERIMENTAL FILM: THE 2010S
I Want Your Love, 2010/2012
Travis Mathews
USA
Runtime: 14 Minutes (short) 71 Minutes (Feature)
Travis Mathews is an up and coming talent in independent and queer film. His series of shorts titled In Their Bedroom, in which he filmed gay men in their bedrooms talking intimately about their sexuality caught the attention of porn company Naked Sword, who offered to finance a film project for him. He then filmed a short titled, I Want Your Love, with the intention of turning it into a feature once the studio approved it. The short deals with two gay best friends who negotiate having sex with each other for the first time. The film of the same name extends the storyline to include a diverse group of the main characters’ friends and lovers, offering vignettes into each of their lives in the gay community of San Francisco.
Mathews uses a John Cassavetes style of filmmaking which focuses less on plot and more on the interaction and experiences of his characters. This Cassavetes approach is meant to evoke realism, thus Mathews also employs real sex. Mathews wrote many of his characters for the actors so they were able to infuse their own persona and character inflection. Unlike Bruce LaBruce, Mathews uses non-porn actors and furthermore, real looking men. The cast are of average body types and diverse races, straying away from the cookie-cutter underwear model types we are used to seeing in gay porn. Mathew’s stressing of reality through the dialogue, casting and sex is all intended to serve the story. He theorizes that if a sense of reality is evoked through the characters, the audience becomes further invested in the storyline, thus packing a much heavier emotional punch when we inevitably see them have sex. Again, we see that real gay sex is being used to expand story and character in avant-garde films.
Mathews uses a John Cassavetes style of filmmaking which focuses less on plot and more on the interaction and experiences of his characters. This Cassavetes approach is meant to evoke realism, thus Mathews also employs real sex. Mathews wrote many of his characters for the actors so they were able to infuse their own persona and character inflection. Unlike Bruce LaBruce, Mathews uses non-porn actors and furthermore, real looking men. The cast are of average body types and diverse races, straying away from the cookie-cutter underwear model types we are used to seeing in gay porn. Mathew’s stressing of reality through the dialogue, casting and sex is all intended to serve the story. He theorizes that if a sense of reality is evoked through the characters, the audience becomes further invested in the storyline, thus packing a much heavier emotional punch when we inevitably see them have sex. Again, we see that real gay sex is being used to expand story and character in avant-garde films.
Footage from the feature length film, as well as an interview with the filmmaker.
I Want Your Love was banned in Australia and James Franco comments on this as well as sex in film.
Interior. Leather Bar., 2013
Travis Mathews and James Franco
USA
Runtime: 60 Minutes
Franco, in a publicity shot for the film, posing like the
protagonist in Jean Cocteau's surrealist film 'Orpheus'
Interior. Leather Bar. was an official Sundance selection earlier this year, generating buzz for its directors, Travis Mathews and James Franco. The concept arose as the filmmakers were interested in re-imagining 40 minutes of footage that was cut from the 1980 film Cruising, in which Al Pacino plays an undercover cop infiltrating the underground gay sex scene of New York City. The footage was scrapped to secure an R rating, proving too racy after having shot the material at real leather bars.
As the project evolved, Mathews and Franco decided to include behind the scenes footage to make it more of a documentary. Mathews describes Interior. Leather Bar. as a film about filmmaking and about boundaries, both sexually and in the film industry. What started out as a re-imagining of a film turned into a re-imagining of the circumstances surrounding the making of Cruising. Through the film’s explicit and real sexual content we become privy to the current restraints surrounding gay sex in films today, providing insight into how censorship laws have evolved since the original Cruising. On a different level, the film also documents the personal boundaries of straight actor Val Lauren, who takes on the role of Al Pacino’s character. As he is infiltrating a scene he is unfamiliar with, we see the actor struggle with his own comfortability with the homoerotic nature of the content. As a contemporary film, Interior. Leather Bar. is an interesting exploration in gay sex in the avant-garde. On the one hand, the film underwent many struggles during its production, but is now being heralded by film critics and welcomed at festivals. Either way, it is obvious that gay sex continues to push the boundaries of film.
As the project evolved, Mathews and Franco decided to include behind the scenes footage to make it more of a documentary. Mathews describes Interior. Leather Bar. as a film about filmmaking and about boundaries, both sexually and in the film industry. What started out as a re-imagining of a film turned into a re-imagining of the circumstances surrounding the making of Cruising. Through the film’s explicit and real sexual content we become privy to the current restraints surrounding gay sex in films today, providing insight into how censorship laws have evolved since the original Cruising. On a different level, the film also documents the personal boundaries of straight actor Val Lauren, who takes on the role of Al Pacino’s character. As he is infiltrating a scene he is unfamiliar with, we see the actor struggle with his own comfortability with the homoerotic nature of the content. As a contemporary film, Interior. Leather Bar. is an interesting exploration in gay sex in the avant-garde. On the one hand, the film underwent many struggles during its production, but is now being heralded by film critics and welcomed at festivals. Either way, it is obvious that gay sex continues to push the boundaries of film.
Franco discusses his use of real sex on film.
NOTABLE FILMS:
Mainstream:
(Primarily from Film Festivals)
2011 - Private Romeo
2011 - Weekend
2012 - Cloud Atlas
Mainstream:
(Primarily from Film Festivals)
2011 - Private Romeo
2011 - Weekend
2012 - Cloud Atlas