Bloodsprayer.com:
It'll End in Tears: A Conversation with “Graphic Sexual Horror” Director, Barbara Bell
When
one refers to them self as “open-minded”, there is very little thought
given to the fact that it’s a risky label. What is your definition of
open-minded? Does it include being racially tolerant? Or perhaps, it
means you consider yourself to be gay positive? How about religion?
Do you feel that believing in religious freedom makes you a forward
thinker? If you answered “yes” to any of these question, then you’re
right…and wrong. Truthfully, we fear what we don’t understand. It
doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you human.
The sexual underground is a very misunderstood “minority”.
Fetishism is way of life that people still treat as a taboo, mostly out
of misunderstanding. As the internet flourished, our culture became
more aware of these sexual proclivities that our missionary position
minds, don’t care to process. I will be the first to admit-I am all
for sexual freedom, but have often been the person to deny the
existence of most fetishes. I’ve always been under the impression that
the internet is responsible for 90% of the world’s fetishes and they
were created solely for the means of making cash. Well, after seeing
the documentary “Graphic Sexual Horror” (currently available from
Synapse Films), I learned that I was not only wrong (well, kind of
wrong-these websites make bank!!!) but also uneducated on the subject
matter.
Graphic Sexual Horror is a documentary about the infamous BDSM
website, Insex.com and it’s founder, pd. At the beginning stages of
live feed websites, Insex set the precedence for what bondage sites
would aspire to be. Pd’s approach to bondage was more of an extremist
art form that challenge the parameters in which people view sexuality
roles and dominance within those parameters. I’ve got a hunch that a
lot of the torture porn that we see bankrolling huge box office numbers
have taken many cues from pd’s devices. Insex had a monstrous
following and it’s performers became cult figures of sorts. While the
original concepts of BDSM were usually added to the pages of your
garden variety skin mag in the “glamour bondage” format i.e., women in
high heels and lingerie, bound and gagged ever-so sexily, Insex was not
your big brother’s bondage. This was visceral, intense, horrific stuff
that straddle the line between sexuality and violence, usually crossing
over into the latter. Members of the website could log in and take
part in the process, by using live streaming chat rooms to let the
viewers help call the shots in the process. Pd’s fame soared and Insex
became the foremost authority on BDSM. His possibilities seemed
endless-until the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11th,
2001.
As we entered the post-9/11 world, the Homeland Security Dept. went
on its modern day witch hunt that saw them attacking everything from
music to food. Paranoia reached a fever pitch as anything that went
against the order of the Bush administration, was considered
“terrorism”. One of the victims of that witch hunt was Insex.com. The
HSD decided that funds were being funneled to terrorist groups through
pornographic websites, particularly those of a violent nature. If it
sounds like bullshit, that’s because it is bullshit. Nonetheless, the
damage was done and Insex was gone…
Director
Barbara Bell and her co-director Anna Lorentzon, were around to capture
the mayhem that took place at Insex.com. When The Blood Sprayer
started tossing around the idea of a Women in Horror Week, Barbara’s
film was the first thing that came to mind. Graphic Sexual Horror is
every bit as terrifying as anything you’ll see this year. Watching the
sessions play out on camera is a lot like watching a Gaspar Noe film,
in that the reality is all out there for the audience to deal with.
The difference though, is Bell and Lorentzon’s ability to give you a
look at the human side of each performer and the creator’s themselves.
GSH made waves at Fantasia, TIFF, and Slamdance which cemented its
place with the horror/exploitation film community. It’s an unflinching
look at a sexual culture that is every bit as intelligent/artistic as
it is unnerving and one of it’s progenitors who took the community to
all new heights. It is easily one of the most intriguing films you
will see all year.
I had the opportunity to meet Barbara Bell recently at a convention,
and realized very early in the conversation that this was not our
average filmmaker. She’s a renaissance women in her own right, having
released novels, albums, and now films. While it comes as no surprise
to me after seeing the film (and won’t to you either after you see
it.), Barbara is surprised at how the horror film community has taken
to her film and adopted her as one of their own. But as I stated
previously, one viewing of this film and you’ll be telling all your
friends about this “insane film you just watched”. She’s a fascinating
person and this interview just scratches the surface on what brilliance
awaits from her.
Barbara took some time to answer some questions for me and gives us
a fantastic look into the world of Insex, as well as, insight into what
being a female filmmaker who’s poking open minds in the chest is all
about.
Blood Sprayer: If
you could, explain how Graphic Sexual Horror came to be. What was your
relationship with Insex.com founder, pd, prior to filming?
Barbara Bell: I was in New York because
Simon & Schuster had just published my novel, Stacking in
Rivertown. PD was looking for a writer because he wanted to create a
mainstream web-serial that had BDSM elements. Anna Lorentzon, my
co-director, knew both of us, so she introduced me to PD. I worked up a
screenplay for the pilot and Anna (his producer at the time) and I
co-directed it. During that time, Anna and I discovered that we worked
well together. After Insex fell apart, Anna and I met to discuss doing
a project together. And all we could talk about were the experiences we
had at Insex. So we decided to do a documentary as a way to get people
interested in our work.
Blood Sprayer: For those who may not know, could you fill us in on what Insex.com was and why it was such a landmark website?
Barbara Bell: PD began Insex in 1997, just
as the internet was really taking off. He already had skills in website
building from having taught at Carnegie Mellon. He claims that Insex
was the first western BDSM porn website that created content made
exclusively for the web, rather than magazines or CD’s. He was also one
of the first webmasters to play around with “live feeds” or live
streaming. To top it off, PD’s artistic strengths fall both into
imagery and spectacle. He wanted to create a modern day Gran Guignol.
His vision of bondage was not “glamour” bondage. PD was highly
influenced by the House of Milan type of imagery – gritty, industrial,
serial killer-esque scenes of bondage and torture. He cites Last House
on the Left and Texas Chainsaw Massacre as two big influences upon his
work. If you look around the web today, PD’s style of bondage, even
down to replicas of his props – are everywhere. He has heavily
influenced modern BDSM imagery.
Blood Sprayer: While a lot
of folks may view BDSM as misogynistic, your documentary proves the
participants to have a much different opinion. In a lot of instances,
it seems that it was liberation for some of the performers. Of the
performers you dealt with, how much of it was about the art and how
much was about the money? Most of the women weren’t shy about their
affinity for the pay, but still, did they gain as much
personally/artistically as pd, or were they suffering for a paycheck
(in some instances)?
Barbara Bell: BDSM plays with power
dynamics, one of the most familiar in our society is sexism. So BDSM
can look misogynistic. Yet a lot of BDSM doesn’t involve women at all.
So BDSM is not misogynistic just in its existence. PD sponsored a
website called Insex M in which a female dominant worked with male
models. Do we worry about the men and think of that imagery as sexist
in some way?
Everyone that came to Insex had his/her own set of reasons for being
there. But the most-cited reason in our interviews was money. PD paid
very well. The models that returned for many shoots (a small percentage
of models) may have returned because they preferred PD’s artistic style
of work. But in general, getting through an Insex shoot was physically
difficult. So hardly anyone returned because of the art or the
challenge. Most were there for the money. One model who was in a
pre-med program at the time told me, “I can make as much in one hour
working for PD as I can in a week working for McDonald’s.” The second
strongest motivator was the adulation that the models received from the
members of the website. Insex had a loyal following. PD’s models became
stars to the membership. Insex members worshipped them. That’s pretty
heady stuff for a late teens/twenty-something female.
In the movie, we tried to illustrate the moment when a model has to
make an active choice – Do I want this money so much that I’m willing
to put up with that? You see, we ALL have to make that choice in our
jobs. Sometimes we need the money. But for many of us, we simply want
more money. This is where we begin to see what I call the “secret
actor” in our documentary (and in our lives). Money. It blurs the line
of consent. We live in a money-centered culture. The problems of
money-worship are seen everyday. How many people cut corners they don’t
want to cut, but it’s cost-efficient? How many people do things in
their jobs they believe is morally wrong, but they do it anyway because
they just can’t let go of the money or benefits that job provides?
This is what I found so interesting about the Insex studio. The
extremity of the climate at Insex illuminated the complexities found in
all of life. It made certain profound problems of being human very
clear. That is the message behind Graphic Sexual Horror. It’s about
marvel and obsession. It’s about greed and how it drives us.
Blood Sprayer:
While we’re on the topic of misogyny, I want to ask you about being a
woman filmmaker. One would never guess that a documentary like this
would’ve been made by women. There’s still quite a bit of old
fashioned thinking, in terms of roles in sexuality and how it plays out
in film, art, etc. What’s your response to folks being taken aback
when they find out this film was made by women? Has the reaction
altered people’s opinions after finding out or is still a “loved it” or
“hated it” mentality (note: I ask love or hate because I assume there
hasn’t been a lot of middle-of-the-road reaction)?
Barbara Bell: I do think that for some
people, finding out that the film was made by two women helped them
decide to go see it. But I don’t know if it has made much difference
once they’ve seen the film. The difficult subject of the film
over-shadows most everything else. What we did discover about our
audience (this is a generality) is that there seems to be a difference
between the under-35 crowd and those older. Younger viewers appear to
be more able to look at the imagery without taking it as reality. I
think they’ve had more experience viewing extreme types of imagery from
having grown up with the internet.
Blood Sprayer: In regards to gender and the
presumed bias in the film industry, do you think the biases are real or
do you feel like the playing field is levelling out, in terms of
opportunity? For example, how differently do you think the film would
be perceived had it been made by a man, if at all?
Barbara Bell: I believe that subtle (and
not so subtle) biases still exist everywhere. But we didn’t really deal
with the film industry beforehand – as in raising money and interest in
our project. Once the film was made, the extreme nature of the finished
product had more influence on possible buyers than the gender of the
filmmakers.
I think that if a man had made the film, it would have been put
together much differently. Ours became powerful because of the focus we
put on the interaction between PD and his models. To us, the most
interesting piece of the story was how two human beings negotiate an
outcome while in the tricky terrain of sex, money, and emotion. Does
that make it a chic flick? (Just joking.)
Blood Sprayer: Graphic Sexual Horror gets
the audience involved and almost attached to the subjects. How
difficult was it to be objective after spending so much time with these
individuals? What has become of the “cast” of GSH since filming ended?
Barbara Bell:
It is always hard to be objective. Personally, I don’t believe that
anyone is ever truly objective. But we tried very hard to paint a true
and balanced picture. Anna and I both learned a lot about our own
reasons for making the film as we went over and over clips and edits.
We constantly questioned each other about motives and direction. It was
a journey, that’s for sure.
Lorelei and Star were still doing fetish modeling the last I heard.
Princess Donna and Matt are both webmasters at kink.com. Cyd and AZ
have worked for PD recently. PD has several websites – Hardtied.com,
InfernalRestraints.com, RealTimeBondage.com, and topgrl.com.
InsexArchives.com operates out of the Netherlands.
Blood Sprayer:
I think that people will potentially be polarized by pd’s approach to
art. On one hand, he’s definitely a brilliant mind who’s able to take
art to it’s furthest limits but on the other hand, it seems as if he
began to buy into his own hype as it pertained to Insex.com. What’s
your take on pd? Considering what the world knows of him, what, if
any, is the misconception?
Barbara Bell: There are clearly artistic
elements in PD’s work and personality. His obsession and drive mirror
the personalities of other well-known artists. He’s rather
Kubrick-esque, as one reviewer said. There are also clearly
pornographic elements in PD’s work. So he’s difficult to classify,
which makes him fascinating.
I think most people assume that PD hates women and does horrible things
to them with the intention of doing “real” harm. I do not believe that
is true in the least. PD had an audience that loved his spectacles. And
he pushed himself and his models to extremes in order to create more
and more fantastic spectacles. PD was also being driven by “the secret
actor” in our film. The pressure of the audience and the money was
higher for him than anyone else. He became a demanding boss like many
bosses, yet when he breaks a limit on camera with a young, naked,
vulnerable-looking model, it looks really bad to many viewers. In
truth, he’s pushing the limits of the situation because he’s conscious
of the pressure of all those viewers and their money. It doesn’t make
it right, but if you put it into a day-to-day context, it’s pretty
normal.
I think a very important point that we didn’t have time to cover in
the film is the nature of fetish. PD is obsessed with the imagery
because it is a fetish for him. He has experienced what he does to his
models and he loves being on the receiving end. So to him and his
members, this imagery has a completely different meaning than what most
people assume. People who do not have a fetish misunderstand the
meaning of it to those who participate in it.
Blood Sprayer:
How do you feel personally about BDSM? Is it grossly misunderstood or
is it just another fetish that Insex.com happen to be able to perfect?
Barbara Bell: As I said above, I feel that
the power and urgency of fetish is misunderstood by those who do not
have it. The imagery of BDSM is looked upon as “violent” by those who
do not enjoy the role-playing and challenge inherent in BDSM scenarios.
To many individuals in the BDSM community, this is a fantasy that is
physically, emotionally, and sexually charged. For some, it is a
spiritual pathway – a vision quest. Many of the members of Insex found
immense relief when they discovered a community of people that had
similar fantasies as themselves. They found partners. They found
life-long friends. After Insex fell apart, staunch group of Insex forum
members created a private forum where they still connect with one
another.
One of the saddest comments about our whole project was that not one
member of Insex would show his/her face on camera for fear of reprisals
from family, employer, community – you name it. This is a vastly
misunderstood minority.
Blood Sprayer: The screenings at Toronto,
Fantasia, and Slamdance solidified the fact that you would be endeared
to the horror/exploitation community. Couple that with the film being
distributed by the fine folks at Synapse Films, and you’ve pretty much
been integrated into that world. But from a previous conversation you
and I had, I discovered you’re not even a big fan of the genre. So,
how has it been being involved with it (the horror genre/community)?
Also, how did the deal with Synapse come to be?
Barbara Bell: I have found it really
surprising that the horror community has been so taken with the film,
but really, I should have anticipated it. When we played at Fantasia in
Montreal, we came to the attention of Don and Jerry at Synapse. We
already had two other offers for DVD distribution when Jerry called me.
One of our offers was from a startup that looked to be a potentially
big opportunity. But after talking with some of Don and Jerry’s
clients, we decided to go with Synapse because they play it straight.
They do what they say they’re going to do and they don’t cheat the
artist. That’s nearly impossible to find in this business. I’m glad we
went with them.
Blood Sprayer: You’re a jack
of all trades: Filmmaker, author, musician. If I’m correct you’re
working on a new screenplay as well as a new book. Can you give us any
details on what’s to come from Barbara Bell?
Barbara Bell: I released a new novella on
Kindle called Line of Battle. It’s political intrigue that involves
torture and the life-changing consequences of it. I wrote it, in part,
as a cautionary tale because I was so appalled when the Bush
administration began legalizing torture. There is NO comparison between
real non-consensual torture and what PD does in a studio. I’ve also
begun work on a screenplay for a full feature film based on the same
basic scenario as the documentary. You can find out more about my work
by visiting www.barbarabell.com. A forward and three sample chapters of Line of Battle are on my website.
Blood Sprayer: This interview is being
done as a part of our Women in Horror Week at The Blood Sprayer.
Throughout your various careers, who have been the women in those
fields that have served as your inspiration to create? And as someone
who’s crossed over those barriers, what words of wisdom have you given
to aspiring writers and filmmakers who you’ve encountered?
Barbara Bell: There’s so many wonderful
women – Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, Janet Frame in writing; Joni
Mitchell, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Gillian Welch in music; film –
Jane Campion (The Piano), Catherine Briellat (Fat Girl), Emma Thompson
(Carrington).
As Spinoza said, all noble things are as difficult as they are rare.
If you want to do something creative in our world, something fine, you
have to be driven. It’s not a career, it’s a life-commitment. You do it
because you can’t stop yourself from doing it. And you won’t rest until
every detail is as it should be. And you never stop. You never ever
stop. Pay attention to everything, even the things you don’t know –
especially the things you don’t know.
Blood Sprayer:
What has become of pd since the documentary’s release? What are his
feelings about the film? After having his livelihood basically ripped
from him by the Homeland Security Dept., one would think a person could
end up pretty bitter. What is he doing now?
Barbara Bell: PD is running the websites I
mentioned above, and as far as I know, doing very well by all
standards. The experience of the loss of his merchant account and Insex
was incredibly difficult for him, but he is a very determined man. He
is not happy with the documentary. I have not spoken with him for over
a year.
Blood Sprayer: Usually, we
end our interviews finding out what are subject’s favorite horror film
of all time is. Since I know you’re not a die-hard fan, I’m still
curious to know-what is your’s?
Barbara Bell: It’s not what we would call
a traditional horror film – but I’d say Night and Fog. It is a
documentary of the Nazi concentration camps. Directed by Alain Resnais,
the documentary features actual photos and films shot by the Allies’
“clean-up” operations.
I’ve never had the ability to watch horror films. Though I think
Alien is a great film, I had to walk out of it. For some reason, the
real horrors of life seem never far from me.
It’s
The
