THE NEW EROTIC – ART SEX REVOLUTION

documentary directed by Ramzi Abed, with Kimberly Kane, Eon McKai, Dave Naz, Allejandra Guerro, Vena Virago, Ed Fox, Jack The Zipper, on DVD at Amazon.com, Halo8.tv, twitter.com/ramziabed

Reviewed by Reviewer Rob

This documentary about the current crop of adult filmmakers in Hollywood starts out with the text of a quote on the screen attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “Every generation needs a new revolution.”

The revolution being fought here is the documentation of what, as Eon McKai might says, these alt-punkers/punkrockers, graphic designers and gallery artists find sexy. Adding more of the music that these movies the stars portrayed in the film appear in would have made it a bit better to watch but would have dated it more quickly too. What we have here now is a time capsule of a portion of the adult industry as exposed by (up to now) horror movie maker Ramzi Abed. There’s a lot of rambling by Eon McKai and he’s kind of the grand daddy of alt-porn film currently so he’s excused for his long-windedness but those parts could have possibly been edited down a lot. Mc Kai’s interminable um-you-knows, ums and I-don’t-knows grew rather distracting. You know? There’s a bit of insight from him when the topic of economics comes up though. The way he speaks of the growing trend towards free porn on the internet and how “that may be the future” is telling. Much of that free porn is user-provided (like Youporn.com) by people who upload their own videos.

In THE NEW EROTIC, the self-documentarian porn provider genre was well represented by Alejandra Guerrero, who is like a kind of Frida Kahlo of kink. This could have really used a good voice-over narrator to smooth through segments that had good imagery but discordant audio with mumbled dialog.

It was kept very real the way it was but Abed could have better built the story and set up the following scenes with a well written narration to tie things together. More music was needed too. So much of the alt porn talent, the actors and directors, as fans or whatever, came up out of the music scene that it’s still so closely associated with it. What was good was when Dave Naz and McKai were talking about their beginnings and what got them into the business. There’s a straightforward directness to their speaking there. Not nearly as good are the times where they would try to explain what is appealing to them. I mean, I know it’s hard to describe a fetish, much less why it appeals to you. But are these purveyors of kink really bashful when it comes to what they like? This seems both clearly obvious and a bit perplexing when they talk about how they borrowed a lot of money to attend a really good college and then got into adult film making or in the case of an older female director, sex work because they were researching their dissertation. Like they say, sex is everywhere in advertising and entertainment yet showing the act itself is still taboo. This documentary is raw and truthful.

Abed pulls no punches with his film making here as many of the scenes are captured in all their explicitness. The non-pornfan may be relieved to know that it’s without gratuitous closeups. If you are looking for a frank and revealing documentary about the Hollywood alternative porn scene, THE NEW EROTIC is for you. But really, within the framework of the porn industry, what makes this scene so “alt” anyways? Is it the lack of boob jobs? They say it’s the “post-Suicide Girls/post-American Apparel” hipster sensibility. However isn’t pornography alternative entertainment already? It’s sure not mainstream. Mainstream porn is like nutritious candy; it doesn’t really exist. Maybe it never will.

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