Indie XXX festival celebrates pleasure

by Maggie Ybarra

Daily Lobo

The communal experience of orgasms, erotic fantasies and the exchange of pleasure for pain is coming soon to a theater near you.

Pornotopia: An Independent Erotic Film Festival is the love child of Matie Fricker and Molly Adler, co-owners of Self Serve - a sexuality resource center in Nob Hill.

Fricker said hosting a festival that celebrates eroticism was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

"It was one of those crazy ideas in the middle of the night," she said. "I have a lot of those."

The festival covers the wide world of dirty talk, pain, orgasms and fulfilling fantasies. There are movies with multiple partners. There are gay and lesbian erotic documentaries. There is even a 3-D midnight matinee of "Disco Dolls in Hot Skin" that will play Friday and Saturday.

"The boobs in the movie are all pre-silicon," Fricker said. "So, to see that in 3-D is probably going to be incredible."

Fricker said that although putting together the event took a lot of work, the hardest part was deciding which films to show during the festival.

"One thing we had a big problem with is that we didn't have a big enough man-power, woman-power to watch all the porn," she said. "And we didn't want this to only be picked by us. So we asked other people, 'What do you think? Will this fit what we're trying to do for this?' This has definitely been a group effort."

Fricker said the festival is less about porn and more about celebrating pleasure. That's why she and Adler selected erotic documentaries like "Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract," "Damon and Hunter: Doing It Together," "Talk to Me Baby," and "Annie Sprinkle's Amazing World of Orgasms."

"I hate most porn," Fricker said. "I think it does the worst job possible of showing people how beautiful sex can be."

Fricker said there's a major difference between porn and erotic documentaries.

"For me, one of the first movies that changed my mind is actually the first part of the movie we're showing at Pornotopia called 'How to Fuck in High Heels,'" she said.

Tony Comstock, director of "Xana and Dax: When Opposites Attract" and "Damon and Hunter: Doing It Together," said he prefers to make erotic documentaries about "real people having a regular sex life with each other" rather than porn.

"If you say 'porn,' some people are like, 'Yay, porn.' Or some people say, 'Ew, porn,'" he said. "And either way, nobody thinks that they're going to get to the point where they get."

Comstock said his documentaries are no different than documentaries you would see on National Geographic or the

History Channel.

"It looks like a regular documentary," he said. "But instead of elephants walking across the Serengeti, it's people you got to know and go to watch have sex eventually. It's really sweet and pretty. And that's the formula for the films."

Comstock said he was pleased Fricker and Adler went out of their way to find films that celebrate sexuality and pleasure.

"I like the fact that these films celebrate being turned on and that they celebrate eroticism," he said. "I like the fact that you can screen them and not have to worry about sitting in a room full of strangers."

Acceptance of sex is narrow in the cinema, Comstock said. That's why he makes erotic documentaries.

"When the house lights go down, and the film comes up, right away there are going to be some parts that are sweet," he said. "There are going to be some parts that are funny. Or there's a big cock or vagina in your face, and it's beautiful."

Jack Hafferkamp of Libido Films said he was glad that Fricker and Adler chose to use his film "Urban Friction" in the festival.

"Urban Friction" is a story about a young couple who moves in together and falls into a pattern. She waits at home while he goes out and lusts after other girls. At one point, she admits that she would like a threesome, and he says, 'I know just the babe.' But what she has in mind is another guy.

Hafferkamp said he and his partner Marianna Beck got into making erotic films after their joint-venture sex magazine ceased publishing after 12 years.

"At some point, it was clear that we needed to move on from the magazine," he said. "Just then, desktop cinema came along, and even though neither of us had experience making movies, we moved on into the movie-making process and have been learning along the way."

Hafferkamp said most of his films are sold in women-owned sex stores like Self Serve.

"The porn industry doesn't know what to do with us," he said. "We're too small, and we don't have enough silicon."

Fricker said she was proud she and Adler were able to relocate to Albuquerque, open a store and put together the Pornotopia festival using only their networking skills in under a year.

"Hopefully, it will work out in our favor," she said. "At the end of the day, we'll have been able to create one of the first independent porn festivals. It's definitely the first in New Mexico and one of a handful in the world."

Fricker said the main point of the festival is to get people to celebrate sexuality.

"That's what our store and this festival is all about," she said. "Even if you're conservative, there are a lot of things about the porn industry and the idea of porn in your face that is really unappealing. But our whole focus is to help it be OK and to help it feel good."

Pornotopia:

An Independent Erotic Film Festival

Guild Cinema

3405 Central Ave. N.E.

Friday-Sunday

$7

SelfServeToys.com/Pornotopia.htm